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On Software Developer Arrogance

March 27, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

There are a lot of things that are true about the software development community. Some of it good, some of it bad, but one of the thing that constantly rubs me the wrong what is software developer arrogance.

During my talk at WordCamp Atlanta, I stated the following:

When it comes to development, know that there is always someone better than you.

If you’ve been involved in any kind of development community for any amount of time, then you know that developers are opinionated people. In fact, the truth is that some are simply arrogant. They are more concerned with showing what they’ve done than hearing about you or learning form others.

Sure, everyone has their stereotypes and it sucks that we’re subjected to them, but acknowledging that someone is better than you – or that you’re better than someone else (in a certain area, that is) – doesn’t have to be an act of arrogance.

During the course of the talk, I tried to convey that acknowledging exactly this can be a very liberating thing. Continue reading

Maybe Worse is Better

March 26, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

I recently read an interesting article about the concept that Worse is Better.

It’s a long article with a few outbound links that tell the story of a guy working with Lisp, AI technologies, and how his opinion ended up generating a lot of feedback so much so that he ended up writing rebuttals to his own work.

Funny, right?

But I couldn’t help but think about how we – as developers – would go back and do the same thing. It’s the whole “if i knew now what I knew then” situation.

This post is not about that article, per se, but there’s a quite at the beginning of the article that really struck a chord with me:

The concept known as “worse is better” holds that in software making (and perhaps in other arenas as well) it is better to start with a minimal creation and grow it as needed. Christopher Alexander might call this “piecemeal growth.”

You can read the article in its entirety, but I wanted to share some of the conflicting thoughts that I’ve had on this topic – at least on the quote above – as it relates not only to WordPress development, but to software development in general. Continue reading

What’s The Proper Way To Instantiate a WordPress Plugin?

March 26, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

When it comes to plugin development – be it either widgets or plugins – there are several different ways in which we can instantiate a WordPress plugin.

Unfortunately, you’re likely to get a different answer depending on who you ask, or what you read.

Case in point: According to the WordPress Codex, instantiating a WordPress widget is done like this:

add_action( 'widgets_init', create_function( '', 'register_widget( "foo_widget" );' ) );

But I know several people who are adamantly against using create_function.

Though I personally don’t have a problem with it, I’m always interested in hearing others’ approach to how they do it and why.

So in this post, I thought I’d lay out the various ways to instantiate a WordPress plugin, pros and cons of each, but also ask each of you what your favorite method is and why.

A Short Interview on WordPress JavaScript Coding Standards

March 25, 2013 / Tom

Last week, I shared that I published the first iteration of the WordPress JavaScript coding standards.

Above all else, this was meant to be a first draft – a 1.0 – of the standards in order that we may all begin collaborating to refine the standards.

Generally speaking, it’s been well-received: I’ve received some good comments and questions via Twitter, and some developers have already made their own additions to the Codex.

Last week, I gave a short interview on WordPress JavaScript coding standards with my team at WP Daily.

Offering WordPress Support on Twitter? No Thanks.

March 25, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

Last week, I shared my problems with the WordPress plugins repository. Above all else, I’ve really enjoyed the comments that people have shared – it’s full of good ideas, I’ve had my opinions changed a bit from the initial post, and the conversation is generally respectful.

For those who have been following along, you know that all of this is being shared as I’m slowly working towards the process of restructuring how I build, maintain, and support my plugins.

As such, I’m trying to be as open as I possibly can be about what I like, what I dislike, and what I’m planning to do as this particular restructuring comes into fruition.

One of the things that’s becoming common among businesses – especially larger businesses – is to offer support via Twitter. The more I’ve begun thinking about how to offer support, the more I’m deciding against offering WordPress support on Twitter.

Tom McFarlin

On Software Developer Arrogance

Maybe Worse is Better

What’s The Proper Way To Instantiate a WordPress Plugin?

A Short Interview on WordPress JavaScript Coding Standards

Offering WordPress Support on Twitter? No Thanks.