Monday, 16 November 2009

Sign of the times

Today, on one of Canada's largest communications services company's web site, an item read "...click on it's corresponding button". Of course, "it's" should not have an apostrophe. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who can't write basic English is not to be trusted with anything more than taking out the garbage. If your web designer can't write in the English language, what makes you think he can competently write in computer languages which are orders of magnitude more complex? This might explain why so many programs don't work correctly.

If your developer's first language is not English, he may very well be a great programmer, but for darn sake, have someone check their English. In any case, it's very clear from the way the stench of bad code permeates throughout the web, that good developers are as rare as good writers of English.

Back in the day, to be a programmer, you needed a degree in computer science, a good score on an I.Q. test, to be personable, have good hygiene, own a blue suit and know someone. Today, you need...to know someone.

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