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Michael Aivaliotis

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    How Software Companies Die

    in LAVA Lounge

    Posted

    How Software Companies Die – Orson Scott Card

    The environment that nurtures creative programmers kills management and marketing types - and vice versa.

    Programming is the Great Game. It consumes you, body and soul. When you're caught up in it, nothing else matters. When you emerge into daylight, you might well discover that you're a hundred pounds overweight, your underwear is older than the average first grader, and judging from the number of pizza boxes lying around, it must be spring already. But you don't care, because your program runs, and the code is fast and clever and tight.

    You won.

    You're aware that some people think you're a nerd. So what? They're not players. They've never jousted with Windows or gone hand to hand with DOS. To them C++ is a decent grade, almost a B - not a language. They barely exist. Like soldiers or artists, you don't care about the opinions of civilians. You're building something intricate and fine. They'll never understand it.

    Beekeeping - Here's the secret that every successful software company is based on: You can domesticate programmers the way beekeepers tame bees. You can't exactly communicate with them, but you can get them to swarm in one place and when they're not looking, you can carry off the honey.

    You keep these bees from stinging by paying them money. More money than they know what to do with. But that's less than you might think. You see, all these programmers keep hearing their fathers' voices in their heads saying "When are you going to join the real world?" All you have to pay them is enough money that they can answer (also in their heads) "Jeez, Dad, I'm making more than you." On average, this is cheap.

    And you get them to stay in the hive by giving them other coders to swarm with. The only person whose praise matters is another programmer. Less-talented programmers will idolize them; evenly matched ones will challenge and goad one another; and if you want to get a good swarm, you make sure that you have at least one certified genius coder that they can all look up to, even if he glances at other people's code only long enough to sneer at it.

    He's a Player, thinks the junior programmer. He looked at my code. That is enough.

    If a software company provides such a hive, the coders will give up sleep, love, health, and clean laundry, while the company keeps the bulk of the money.

    Out of Control - Here's the problem that ends up killing company after company. All successful software companies had, as their dominant personality, a leader who nurtured programmers. But no company can keep such a leader forever. Either he cashes out, or he brings in management types who end up driving him out, or he changes and becomes a management type himself. One way or another, marketers get control.

    But...control of what? Instead of finding assembly lines of productive workers, they quickly discover that their product is produced by utterly unpredictable, uncooperative, disobedient, and worst of all, unattractive people who resist all attempts at management. Put them on a time clock, dress them in suits, and they become sullen and start sabotaging the product. Worst of all, you can sense that they are making fun of you with every word they say.

    Smoked Out - The shock is greater for the coder, though. He suddenly finds that alien creatures control his life. Meetings, Schedules, Reports. And now someone demands that he PLAN all his programming and then stick to the plan, never improving, never tweaking, and never, never touching some other team's code. The lousy young programmer who once worshiped him is now his tyrannical boss, a position he got because he played golf with some sphincter in a suit.

    The hive has been ruined. The best coders leave. And the marketers, comfortable now because they're surrounded by power neckties and they have things under control, are baffled that each new iteration of their software loses market share as the code bloats and the bugs proliferate.

    Got to get some better packaging. Yeah, that's it.

    Originally from Windows Sources: The Magazine for Windows Experts, March 1995

    • Like 10
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  7. LabVIEW (LVA) license advice

    in Announcements

    Posted

    I would use a PXI chassis with an NI embedded controller. However, you need to decide if you get a Linux controller to run LabVIEW Real-Time or Windows. It depends on what you want to do. It sounds like you have some power in the decision-making, so I would look at what the final outcome should be and work your way back from that. If existing components can be used, fine, but don't be married to them. Sometimes creating the glue that sticks old stuff together is a headache. Question what the issues are with the current system and see how things can be improved or automated to save time and operator errors. At the end of the day, if you are responsible for the outcome then you want to put your best foot forward. Let someone else higher up slash your budget if they have to but do a proper design. If everything works, nobody will question your decision, but if it fails, then you will have to justify why you cut corners and didn't go for the better solution.

    As far as licensing, get what is most cost-effective for your team, assuming more than one person will be developing with LabVIEW. You don't need a full LabVIEW license if you are running an executable or doing Real-Time. But of course you probably know that already.

    I've worked in Aerospace, Semiconductor and a multitude of other industries about the same amount of time as you.

  10. [CR] JSONtext

    in Code Repository (Certified)

    Posted

    Yes, empty string is invalid JSON, but so could be malformed text, which is more serious than an empty string which could imply reading a non-existent JSON item.

    How should I handle reading JSON files where data elements are missing? I like having the default data input so if an item is missing, it returns the default, of course. But now I have to write special code for every node. What is the best practice when using this toolkit for this use-case?

    I guess I could create custom wrappers. But I wanted to avoid the extra work for something that's common.

    Am I using it wrong?

  16. Installing LabVIEW runtime engine files with third-party MSI builder. Is nipkg, the new way?

    in Application Builder, Installers and code distribution

    Posted

    I use a third-party MSI builder and not the built-in NI installer builder. I want to include the latest MSI LabVIEW runtime installer. I looked through: C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\MDF\ProductCache but couldn't definitely determine the correct files to use. I used the NI installer builder as a guide to determine the dependancies.

    image.png

    I know the LabVIEW runtime is also available as an nipkg file. is that the better way to go? If someone can suggest any other solution that would help, I appreciate it.

  21. User Report

    in Wiki Help

    Posted

    Yes, this user has already been banned. It seems to be an isolated incident of messages sent through the forums personal message system. If you have notifications on for PMs it will email the message to you.

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