ManWithComputer
The Internet, IP
Male, 37
I've worked at multiple Internet startups of different shapes, sizes and ambitions. Now I'm the CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of another small company with big dreams. I look nothing like the picture above.
If you copy and paste your homework question in here, I will answer with something that will, at best, get you an F on your project, and at worst, will get you kicked out of school. You have been warned.
Right now most of the people I know who build websites use either the Rails framework written in Ruby (which is what my company uses), or the Django framework written in Python. Django vs. Rails is what we call a "holy war," meaning that it's based on tiny differences in doctrine that to an outsider seem trivial. PHP is still very popular too but has a bad reputation amongst some coders: it's thought of as the tool of choice for hacks (as opposed to hackers), and is said to be virtually unmaintainable. Bigger shops tend to use various Java frameworks, about which I know little and care less. I started learning Java some years ago and quickly decided that it wasn't any fun at all. To anyone who works with Java reading this: learn Rails, you have nothing to lose but your chains. As for languages dying out, sure, they do all the time. Thousands of programming languages have been invented over the years, and at any given time maybe 30 are reasonably popular. In my own career, for instance, Perl used to be the center of the universe, but I haven't written a single line in it for maybe 10 years. There's something wistful and sad about happening across docs for a dead language.
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A multi-way tie between: * interrupting me when I'm thinking (see many comments on the subject above); * bullshitting (programmers don't tend to, since you can't bullshit a computer); * calling meetings that don't need to be held for the sake of having a meeting.
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It's a hell of a lot harder without the headphones, because then we can hear people talking.
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Hate to do this, but I'm going to have to cop out and suggest you ask a professional about this. Luckily for me, even though I've been programming for decades, I'm apparently not prone to RSIs.
(RSI = "repetitive stress injury", meaning carpal tunnel syndrome and whatnot).
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Navy Officer (Former)
What's the most dangerous situation you were ever in?
Obstetrician Gynecologist
Has being an OBGYN affected your own beliefs about when "life" begins?
Aircraft Mechanic
Did you ever catch something critical right before a plane was about to take off?
I think what we have here are two related questions: why programmers can do this, and why they do. We can because we have a lot of leverage in the workplace (due simply to supply and demand) and this is one of the few ways we use it. Also, we don't deal with the public, or even other people in general, very much. We do because, without a reason to dress up, we might as well be comfortable. I also wouldn't underestimate the lingering effects of the early connections between programming and 1960s counterculture (a book about called _What The Dormouse Said_ is said to be good). Take a look at this old staff photo of Microsoft from 1978, and notice how in bad light you could easily mistake them for the Manson Family: http://www.flixya.com/photo/1020798/Microsoft-Staff-Photo-December-7-1978
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Well, yes, that's a different story. Sounds like the problem is your particular developer.
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I'm the voice of reason, or, to put it another way, the wet blanket. I'm Scotty down in the engine room yelling "Ye canna change the laws of physics!" at the head-in-the-clouds bridge officers (*). I mostly don't set the agenda but I do veto parts of it that are impossible or ill-advised. (*) That's my Star Trek reference for the year taken care of.
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