Joel on Software – Working on CityDesk, Part Four

We used to write algorithms. Now we call APIs.
Nowadays a good programmer spends a lot of time doing defensive coding, working around other people’s bugs. It’s not uncommon to set up an exception handler to prevent your code from crashing when your crap library crashes.
Times have changed. Welcome to a world where the programmer who knows how to tap into other people’s brains and experience using the Internet has a decisive advantage.

Which is one of the strengths of the whole Linux, GNU, BSD, OpenSource, etc. world. Not only are there rich APIs for use but one has the choice of coding around problems or fixing them yourself.

Joel on Software – Working on CityDesk, Part Four

We used to write algorithms. Now we call APIs.
Nowadays a good programmer spends a lot of time doing defensive coding, working around other people’s bugs. It’s not uncommon to set up an exception handler to prevent your code from crashing when your crap library crashes.
Times have changed. Welcome to a world where the programmer who knows how to tap into other people’s brains and experience using the Internet has a decisive advantage.

Which is one of the strengths of the whole Linux, GNU, BSD, OpenSource, etc. world. Not only are there rich APIs for use but one has the choice of coding around problems or fixing them yourself.