[ale] Different kinds of developers [was: Re: Programming language groups in ATL]

[Chris Fowler]

Daniel Kahn Gillmor wrote:
> On Tue 2008-06-24 09:40:25 -0400, Chris Fowler wrote:
>
>   
>> There is a lot of text on the Internet on the difference between a
>> Windows programmer and a UNIX programmer.  I have one generalization
>> that I think fits the most.
>>
>> The UNIX programmer will write a program to work on the CLI first.
>> Then that programmer will develop a GUI that executes the CLI
>> program.  We see this often in Linux.
>>
>> The Windows programmer will design the GUI first.  There will be
>> forms and buttons with no code behind them.  After the design is
>> mostly done that same programmer will start writing the real code
>> that does real work.
>>     
>
> Another way to see this difference for a program addressing a given
> problem domain is whether the developer is more interested in
> providing:
>
>  0) programmatically-accessible conceptual primitives associated with
>     the problem domain, or
>
>  1) an intuitive interface for humans to do the most common tasks
>     related to the problem domain.
>
> This is not necessarily a UNIX/Windows divide, but unfortunately it
> often breaks down that way.  
>   
I'm not in real agreement with all of that statement.   Maybe you are 
talking about deficiency within programmers. Why can a programmer not 
choose both?  When I developed the CLI configuration program for our 
embedded Linux device I had all the intention of creating a GUI 
counterpart.  There is a CLI, Web, and XML-RPC interface to the 
configuration of the device.  The problem I wanted to address is the 
need to not have code copied across the 3 interfaces.  In all 3 
interfaces the CLI code is executed.  The XML-RPC and Web interfaces 
assemble a command line and execute that command. It also parses the 
command output in order to deliver a meaningful message back to the caller.

Who cares about a UI is the code behind it sucks (Windows). 

I do believe that the UI development in Linux is too fragmented.  Using 
programs from different GUIs brings in libraries that use more disk 
space and more memory as a single GUI environment.  I've grew accustomed 
to Ubuntu on the desktop because for a desktop user Ubuntu is headed in 
the right direction.

I do hope that the CLI is not abandoned.  There are many times there is 
no need for one.