Comments on: The Dirty Little Secret of iPhone Development http://akosma.com/2008/12/23/dirty-little-secret/ Leading international provider of cross-platform and multilingual software solutions, for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and the web. Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:51:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: 10 Things Every iPhone App Designer Should Know | akosma softwarehttp://akosma.com/2008/12/23/dirty-little-secret/comment-page-1/#comment-149 10 Things Every iPhone App Designer Should Know | akosma software Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:28:55 +0000 http://kosmaczewski.net/?p=1275#comment-149 <p>[...] from a web or print background are ready to tackle design projects for the iPhone ipso facto. I’ve seen too many horrors so far, and that is why I am making public this list of tips and tricks that I keep repeating to all the [...]</p> [...] from a web or print background are ready to tackle design projects for the iPhone ipso facto. I’ve seen too many horrors so far, and that is why I am making public this list of tips and tricks that I keep repeating to all the [...]

]]> By: Adrianhttp://akosma.com/2008/12/23/dirty-little-secret/comment-page-1/#comment-21 Adrian Sun, 09 Aug 2009 09:13:20 +0000 http://kosmaczewski.net/?p=1275#comment-21 <p>Hi Tom! Thanks a lot for your comment. I can't agree enough with you :) Cheers from Switzerland!</p> Hi Tom! Thanks a lot for your comment. I can’t agree enough with you :) Cheers from Switzerland!

]]> By: Major Tomhttp://akosma.com/2008/12/23/dirty-little-secret/comment-page-1/#comment-20 Major Tom Sun, 09 Aug 2009 03:36:29 +0000 http://kosmaczewski.net/?p=1275#comment-20 <p>I liked the sentiments in your article. I've never seen the Chaos article until now. I stopped reading your article and read that and came back here. The others I've read. I'm also a Joel disciple (well mostly). Ok so the question is how to mitigate the interference from: 1) technical managers who think they know something. 2) programmers who are there to pick up a paycheck. They are robots and mediocre ones at that. 3) and finally, programmers who don't know what they don't know. We must always interface with them, guide them, and if possible assert our authority as experts in the field. However, when overruled does one still program it? I did that once, programmed it to literally break the standard that was always put in place. I place a ton of comments in the code stating that "I do not agree with this coding change and am doing it under duress from my manager." I implemented the code. And guess what, it performed poorly. Amazing. Sorry for the rant. But its not the programmers who are cowboys. The whole organization views software as garbage hauling. It can be done at will, anyone who has a pulse can do it, one doesn't need any tools or "special items" to perform the work. If the job doesn't get done or doesn't get done right, then it will just pile up and we'll do it later. One director said that the company wasn't a software engineering firm. Our group has 150 programmers. Yeah we're not an accounting firm either but you give the accountants calculators and spreadsheet and analytics software. But when it came to getting tools for us like MS Project (@$500?) it was TOO expensive. We can use Excel for that. Idiots!!!! ABSOLUTE IDIOTS I SAY!!! Alright you've had enough of my rant. Later.</p> I liked the sentiments in your article. I’ve never seen the Chaos article until now. I stopped reading your article and read that and came back here. The others I’ve read. I’m also a Joel disciple (well mostly). Ok so the question is how to mitigate the interference from: 1) technical managers who think they know something. 2) programmers who are there to pick up a paycheck. They are robots and mediocre ones at that. 3) and finally, programmers who don’t know what they don’t know. We must always interface with them, guide them, and if possible assert our authority as experts in the field. However, when overruled does one still program it? I did that once, programmed it to literally break the standard that was always put in place. I place a ton of comments in the code stating that “I do not agree with this coding change and am doing it under duress from my manager.” I implemented the code. And guess what, it performed poorly. Amazing. Sorry for the rant. But its not the programmers who are cowboys. The whole organization views software as garbage hauling. It can be done at will, anyone who has a pulse can do it, one doesn’t need any tools or “special items” to perform the work. If the job doesn’t get done or doesn’t get done right, then it will just pile up and we’ll do it later. One director said that the company wasn’t a software engineering firm. Our group has 150 programmers. Yeah we’re not an accounting firm either but you give the accountants calculators and spreadsheet and analytics software. But when it came to getting tools for us like MS Project (@$500?) it was TOO expensive. We can use Excel for that. Idiots!!!! ABSOLUTE IDIOTS I SAY!!! Alright you’ve had enough of my rant. Later.

]]> By: Adrianhttp://akosma.com/2008/12/23/dirty-little-secret/comment-page-1/#comment-19 Adrian Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:51:18 +0000 http://kosmaczewski.net/?p=1275#comment-19 <p>Hola Eduardo, gracias por tus comentarios!</p> <p>Efectivamente, lo del iPhone es 100% "hitting a moving target", uno esta siempre tratando de alcanzar esa liebre que no para de correr. Lo importante es saber que los problemas que se pueden presentar en proyectos de este tipo <em>son conocidos</em>, no hay nada nuevo bajo el sol, y que si bien no siempre tienen soluciones definitivas, seguramente hay experiencia en la industria que permita dar con la solucion mas adaptada. Hace mas de 50 años que se escribe software, y la literatura desde los 70' hasta ahora (desde Brooks y Peopleware hasta ahora) identifico varios problemas de los que hable aqui arriba.</p> <p>Lo importante es saber donde estamos parados (esa es la intencion primera del articulo) y despues, de ahi, preguntar y leer. Eso, y ser flexible y paciente :)))</p> Hola Eduardo, gracias por tus comentarios!

Efectivamente, lo del iPhone es 100% “hitting a moving target”, uno esta siempre tratando de alcanzar esa liebre que no para de correr. Lo importante es saber que los problemas que se pueden presentar en proyectos de este tipo son conocidos, no hay nada nuevo bajo el sol, y que si bien no siempre tienen soluciones definitivas, seguramente hay experiencia en la industria que permita dar con la solucion mas adaptada. Hace mas de 50 años que se escribe software, y la literatura desde los 70′ hasta ahora (desde Brooks y Peopleware hasta ahora) identifico varios problemas de los que hable aqui arriba.

Lo importante es saber donde estamos parados (esa es la intencion primera del articulo) y despues, de ahi, preguntar y leer. Eso, y ser flexible y paciente :) ))

]]> By: Eduardohttp://akosma.com/2008/12/23/dirty-little-secret/comment-page-1/#comment-18 Eduardo Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:57:02 +0000 http://kosmaczewski.net/?p=1275#comment-18 <p>Muy buen post. Vengo de otro entorno y no entiendo nada de programación, y estoy metido en un desarrollo de iPhone, donde veo repetidamente varias de las cosas que mencionás. Muchas de ellas en requerimientos míos hacia terceros. Una buena parte es falencia mia, pero además hay un componente de novedad importante, especialmente en el mundo iPhone. Todos los días sale algo novedoso, surgen nuevas ideas o el benchmark se mueve. Con lo cual constantemente entrás en la dicotomía, de respetar los procesos o romperlo y tratar de actualizarte por miedo a quedar fuera.</p> Muy buen post. Vengo de otro entorno y no entiendo nada de programación, y estoy metido en un desarrollo de iPhone, donde veo repetidamente varias de las cosas que mencionás. Muchas de ellas en requerimientos míos hacia terceros. Una buena parte es falencia mia, pero además hay un componente de novedad importante, especialmente en el mundo iPhone. Todos los días sale algo novedoso, surgen nuevas ideas o el benchmark se mueve. Con lo cual constantemente entrás en la dicotomía, de respetar los procesos o romperlo y tratar de actualizarte por miedo a quedar fuera.

]]> By: Samuelhttp://akosma.com/2008/12/23/dirty-little-secret/comment-page-1/#comment-16 Samuel Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:11:12 +0000 http://kosmaczewski.net/?p=1275#comment-16 <p>Nice and truely interesting one! Always love that sarcastic sense of humor mixed with experienced technical analysis.... Thx!</p> Nice and truely interesting one! Always love that sarcastic sense of humor mixed with experienced technical analysis…. Thx!

]]> By: Ariel Rodriguezhttp://akosma.com/2008/12/23/dirty-little-secret/comment-page-1/#comment-17 Ariel Rodriguez Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:11:01 +0000 http://kosmaczewski.net/?p=1275#comment-17 <p>You are absolutely right on the main claim. As a Mac developer with more than 10 years of experience, i have to admit i am thrilled with the buzz around iPhone development. Not even when Cocoa was introduced, the Mac developer community was so shocked. Some of the people jumping to the iPhone development wagon are excellent, very smart people, coming from C/C++, Java and even Python (or just starting with the right mindset). Unfortunately, there are also a lot of [php kiddies][0] that just pollute the air. Part of our work as developers is to educate our customers about the intrinsic complexity of software engineering. And from time to time, we need to deal the "ok, here i am the one who knows how to deal with this sort of thing" card and spent days looking for the elusive memory link. The problem is that, some customers can't understand at first what we are dealing with and ends up with the php kiddie, because he or she is not complaining about memory leaks (because he or she doesn't even hesitate to fire Instruments :)). The end product keeps crashing all the time, but they are on the Store :) [0]: Don't get me wrong here. PHP is great for some small things. Unfortunately, is also great to get people learn (and live) with the poorest standards. For instance, i have seen many scripts where the php code is embedded on the html presentation. It sure works, but for someone who embed calls to MySQL on html code, it is not easy to understand MVC or see what an object is supposed to do.</p> You are absolutely right on the main claim. As a Mac developer with more than 10 years of experience, i have to admit i am thrilled with the buzz around iPhone development. Not even when Cocoa was introduced, the Mac developer community was so shocked. Some of the people jumping to the iPhone development wagon are excellent, very smart people, coming from C/C++, Java and even Python (or just starting with the right mindset). Unfortunately, there are also a lot of [0] that just pollute the air. Part of our work as developers is to educate our customers about the intrinsic complexity of software engineering. And from time to time, we need to deal the “ok, here i am the one who knows how to deal with this sort of thing” card and spent days looking for the elusive memory link. The problem is that, some customers can’t understand at first what we are dealing with and ends up with the php kiddie, because he or she is not complaining about memory leaks (because he or she doesn’t even hesitate to fire Instruments :) ). The end product keeps crashing all the time, but they are on the Store :) [0]: Don’t get me wrong here. PHP is great for some small things. Unfortunately, is also great to get people learn (and live) with the poorest standards. For instance, i have seen many scripts where the php code is embedded on the html presentation. It sure works, but for someone who embed calls to MySQL on html code, it is not easy to understand MVC or see what an object is supposed to do.

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