• TheCPUWizard (unregistered)
    We don't use scrum really," explained Bill. "Not much point with just me."
    ..... AARRGGHHHH!!!!

    Even a single developer benefits from Scrum as well as Agile [aka the 12/4] in many significant ways.

  • Ron Fox (google)

    Shouldn't Bill have been named Ishi?

  • My Name (unregistered)

    Protocol buffers, a google invention from 2008 - given the style of the codebase presented in the article I'd say that the code predates the concept of protocol buffers by at least a decade... maybe thats why.

  • Yazeran (unregistered)

    Eh, anyone knows when login will be fixed? 'Illegal arguments: string, object' ???

  • (nodebb)

    Gotta love the SimCity reference.

    I can't blame this code on a lack of scrum, as they seem to be insinuating here, though. Looks more like just good old-fashioned lack of conceptual knowledge, incompetence, or inexperience. Pick your poison.

  • tharpa (unregistered)

    "This sounded good to Jaeson, who was considerably more concerned about getting away from his previous company's open floor plan than the possibility of customer interaction, but hey, he'd take the icing on the cake. "

    Jaeson sounds like a man of my own heart. The new place is free of the first disease.

    "We don't use scrum really"

    Free of the second disease.

  • lost in the last decade (unregistered) in reply to My Name

    concept of protocol buffers

    Ha! Look up what CORBA used to do. it's the 90's "protocol buffers"

  • (nodebb)

    (Oh hey there's a fancy new Log Out button) I just want to Scrum myself a bit, just to see if it's worth it...

  • Paul Neumann (unregistered)

    "Hey Bill, why didn't we use a Protocol Buffer for our param class?" he asked, innocently. "A what?" "...nevermind, I think I figured out why."

    And so it never gets better.

  • I'm not a robot (unregistered) in reply to lost in the last decade
    Ha! Look up what CORBA used to do. it's the 90's "protocol buffers"

    a) That doesn't help if Bill never worked with CORBA. b) Even if he did, that wouldn't magically allow him to recognise the term "protocol buffer" as being similar to something he already knew about.

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered) in reply to Paul Neumann

    Bill was willing to say "A what?" instead of launching into a self-defensive tirade. That by itself is an indication he's ready and willing to better himself. The author's response...

  • Dan (unregistered) in reply to My Name

    "Protocol buffers, a google invention from 2008 - given the style of the codebase presented in the article I'd say that the code predates the concept of protocol buffers by at least a decade... maybe thats why."

    It's a bit generous to say that Google invented it, since the concept has been around since at least 1987 (Sun XDR). But kudos to Google for making it cross-language at least.

    In order to provide Java support, we modified rpcgen, as well as our own IDL compiler, to be able to output Java code in addition to C code. Of course with Java's need to encapsulate everything in classes and with its lack of method pointers, the resulting code is quite ugly.

  • Scott Christian Simmons (unregistered) in reply to The_Quiet_One

    "Looks more like just good old-fashioned lack of conceptual knowledge, incompetence, or inexperience. Pick your poison." Why not both all three?

  • Duke of New York (unregistered)

    If someone asked me the same question I'd say "WTF?" but if they asked me about the builder pattern then we could have a conversation. Jaeson should distinguish between technologies and concepts.

  • Razorback (unregistered) in reply to TheCPUWizard

    Maybe that one-guy team should also have done Pair Programming. That would be like Forrest Gump doing ping pong training.

  • Quite (unregistered)

    Surprised nobody made the obvious wisecrack of the Elephant in the cubicle ...

  • PlusOne (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward Bill was willing to say "A what?" instead of launching into a self-defensive tirade. That by itself is an indication he's ready and willing to better himself. The author's response...

    +1

  • (nodebb) in reply to PlusOne

    OK, so how do you do quoting in the new comment system?

  • Duke of New York (unregistered)

    "Why didn't we use a protocol buffer?" Because they're configuration objects and not network packets, doofus.

  • Richard (unregistered)

    ... Jaeson ... ... Jaesan ...

    I guess if your parents can't be bothered to spell "Jason" correctly, it doesn't matter whether your name changes half-way through the story.

  • Barf4Eva (unregistered) in reply to PlusOne

    The author's response could have been converted in to the story as follows:

    "...And then Jason wanders off smugly, and perhaps ignorantly, whilst sniffing farts from a wine glass.... Giddy w/ the knowledge/damage that he felt too privileged to share."

    Personally, I'd like to think that Jason wasn't this much of an a-hole and this is simply bad story embellishment. :)

  • frostymarvelous (unregistered)

    Is it me or these stories are getting kinda tired and are the real WTF in many cases. Not only was the question about using protobuf (there are many technologies you could use) wrong, his response is simply terrible! And what was the point of the entire article? The customer issue or the config class? Cos I totally didn't expect it to go the way it did.

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