When I first started playing with computers, stacks were something different to heaps. Later I came to know them as a type of list. Now when someone talks about stacks, they are usually talking about a target development platform.
Of course you could change MySQL for PostgreSQL, Zend for Kohana, CodeIgnitor or Cake, JQuery for Prototype or MooTools. The stack looks more or less the same. They all feature the MVC pattern. Businesses objects, which have long lived in databases, form the model. The application layer contains the event driven controllers. The javascript enabled page becomes a sophisticated user interface rather than a static view.
They all leave the application model, logic and user interface for the developers. In a large organization, these responsibilities would be divided among several specialists. Luckily, there already exists a wide range of business objects and design patterns a freelance application developer can use to build robust applications.
Given the similarities between these stacks, especially the bits they leave for developers to implement themselves, it should be straightforward to implement the same application in anyone of these stacks.
This is a glib phrase that describes needless busy work doing something that’s already been done. At one time it was exclusively the language of programmers flaming one another in forums. Even then it was usually a term of abuse. Since then it’s been hi-jacked by many closely related groups. Like many hi-jacked terms, its lost most of it’s meaning, used as rhetoric in place of reason.
It’s a perfectly valid point of view if you’re content with what passed as merely satisfactory, last year. If you’re happy with being on the trailing edge.
In truth people are constantly re-inventing the wheel, and just about every other thing ever invented. Chupa Chups re-invented sugar and made millions. If you’re not convinced take a look at the wheels on your car. Notice how they aren’t solid discs of wood. They have tyres filled with air, and suspension (to flatten the road, on the fly!)
In some cases it’s faster to write your own code than spend the time researching, sourcing and acquiring code someone else made. Coders testing their methodologies, designs, or just implementations look like they’re re-inventing the wheel.
Do you use Windows? The latest version? What does that number at the end mean?
If you have 20 developers working for you, then you have a significant resource. A few years ago now, I was on one course or another, that had a management component. Part of it was an exercise – everyone was given the same 20 questions to answer. The questions aren’t important, neither are individual’s scores. Two points are important:
No individual got all the questions right.
The group as a whole all the questions right.
So 20 developers, working as a group, should be better at reviewing code than 2… I’m not saying you need to have all 20 writing the actual code, just that 20 pairs of eyes will spot more mistakes, gaps and errors than the 2 guys actually writing the code. Of course it might bruise the egos of the 2 code writers. Which might be a good reason to stop the other 18 programmers from seeing the code.
Colin and Andrea
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