Are You a Deluded Developer?

[Brad Jones]

"Some people claim they're both desktop and web developer. These people are clearly deluded. "

Check out my newest Codeguru blog post!

http://blog.codeguru.com/blog/2009/0...developer.html

Let's see if you agree with FunkyDexter over at VBForums!

Brad!

[Shuja Ali]

I will have to disagree with part of the Blog. I am a .NET developer , it doesn't matter whether I write code for a web application or a desktop application.

The distinction that has been made should be for designers and not for developers. Designers are the ones who make buttons look flashy, developers just write the code that handles the functionality of that button (the rotating one ).

In a real life scenario, if I have written a Data Access Layer, this layer can be used in both Desktop as well as Web applications without any change, same goes for a Business Layer. What the thread and the blog talk about is the presentation and presentation is not usually handled by a programmer completely, it is more or less done by a Designer (the one who writes those complex Cascading Style Sheet scripts). So I think a programmer is just a programmer, doesn't matter if he/she writes code for a web or a desktop based application, which means he/she is not deluded. Or am I am wrong?

That is my $0.02.

[Brad Jones]

I know a developer (consultant) that spent many, many billiable hours making a button that showed melting and freezing. The button was used to 'freeze' the information on the screen, or to allow it to be changed.....

No designers were involved.....

And yes, a simple button with text on it would have worked.

Brad!

[Twey]

Web developers are different and strange. They worry about what things look like. They delve into hues of orange and green and use bizarre techniques like 'shading'. Their buttons are funny shapes. Sometimes you can't tell they're buttons at all, let alone what they do. Hell, sometimes their buttons even move around the screen, fleeing from the cursor like a politician from the truth. It's bright, it's dazzling, it's flashy. It's also completely dysfunctional but that's beside the point... look... look... my buttons rotating... ROTATING!

You can't say that desktop apps never succumb to this temptation *cough* *cough* Microsoft Office 2007 *cough* Even app buttons nowadays are rarely square — they all have fades and rounded corners and 3D effects and they flash when you move your mouse over them.

This is why I prefer minimalist design for web-apps. There's a common delusion amongst webbies today that if it doesn't flash, spin, hoot, and contain at least 10MB of images, it's not worth reading. They forget that perfectly good designs can be made with no images at all — perhaps even better for their simplicity. A good design is like a good butler: it's elegant, tasteful, and fades into the background unless you're explicitly looking for it (and can be safely dismissed at any time [by disabling CSS]).

That said, this is purely on the interface side. Behind the scenes, there's not much difference between a complex web app and a complex desktop app, at least if presentation is properly separated from functionality. And hey, you can leave the interface design to specialists.

[Shuja Ali]

I know a developer (consultant) that spent many, many billiable hours making a button that showed melting and freezing. The button was used to 'freeze' the information on the screen, or to allow it to be changed.....

In this I would love to beat the project manager (not the developer) who let him waste all the time on something that a designer could have done in lesser time.

Honestly speaking as someone else mentioned here in the thread, a professional Web App or a Windows app should have a designer in the project team who would be responsible for the design. Leave the programmers to do their actual job rather than making a button with a tail

[Brad Jones]

In a lot of smaller organizations the developer is the designer (and the PM as well)

Brad!

[Shuja Ali]

Well yes smaller organizations do tend to do that and these are the organizations that lead to the delude.

[dglienna]

Well, the DESIGN tools have been getting better and better. Still, they're not to the point of a non-artistic type to be able to do much. Getting better and better, but I don't think they'll ever replace artistic ability.