🚀 go-pugleaf

jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau):
> There are easier graphics environments to program around than the Mac.  The
> moral of the story is that the Mac is hell on the software developer, but
> heaven on the novice user.

The point is not whether the Mac provides a good programming environment.
What I saw in the post to which I responded was a hacker whining about how
it took so much of his goddamn precious time to develop an application on
the Mac (as compared to UNIX).  There was no mention of which platform did
more for the *users* in terms of training time or productivity, and that
was what got me going.

The "technological priesthood" to which I referred includes all programmers
who fail to realize that the purpose of their work is to make it possible
for non-programmers to do *their* jobs either better or faster.  There are
far too many techno-weenies out there who think that the users exist for
the programmer's benefit, and who are more interested in playing with the
"sexiest" technology than in producing anything useful.  Many of the people
who've expressed dislike or disdain for graphical interfaces have argued
that they make programmers' lives more difficult, as if that were some sort
of crime.  The poor babies!  How dare we demand that they take time away
from their pursuit of the Ultimate Hack to make things easier for the mere
mortal *users* who sign their paychecks?  There's nothing wrong with hacking,
but don't start crying when people expect you to *earn* your pay when you'd
rather go play.

For those who don't like to hear such criticism and can't read .sigs, I'd
like to explain where I'm coming from.  My business card says "Engineer",
not "Manager" or "Sales Representative", and that's what I am.  I'm not a
student, I'm not a naive user, and I'm not an economist; I'm an ENGINEER.
As such, I'm not saying these things from some semi-informed external
perspective.  I'm down in the trenches, hacking all sorts of code, and I
damn well know how good it feels to pull off some nifty technical stunt.
HOWEVER, I realize that nifty hacks are not what I'm paid for, nor should
they be.  I am paid to make systems *usable* and, like any true engineer
(as opposed to outgrown hobbyists) I believe that the true measure of my
ability is not how *amazing* my work is, but how *functional* it is.  If
I want amazement I should work on leading edge projects, not try to apply
leading edge technology where it may not be appropriate.  After all, who
needs an FDDI interface to a 100 cps daisy-wheel printer?

This is getting away from comp.sys.mac, and I apologize.  I just think
that *useability* is a very important part of what makes a Mac unique,
and a lot of people don't seem to appreciate the power of that idea.

Jeff d'Arcy     OS/Network Software Engineer     jdarcy@encore.com
  If Encore endorsed my opinions, they couldn't afford to pay me