philcrissman.com

I hold strong opinions about the placement of curly braces.

I don’t care where K & R put them, I’ll put them wherever I want to put them. And don’t even start with the CSS files with the closing curly brace indented inline with the rules. Where did that come from?

It appears that I also hold strong opinions about indentation. Also, on whether or not a space should be left on the inside of opening and closing delimiters before the argument(s) they contain, where such delimiters are optional, whether or not they should be used, and whether or not text should wrap in the source listing, .

I have strong opinions about choices of languages to use for programming. Although I will concede, probably grudgingly, that there are other languages which may be faster, more elegant, more efficient, or more popular than my favorite language(s), this will not alter my preference, and if pressed I will defend my language regardless of its perceived shortcomings. If nothing else, I will claim that my language is more fun, or some other reason for its superiority which has nothing to do with programming languages per se. Furthermore, I will not accept the use of these same arguments if used to show that a different language is somehow superior to my favorite language or languages.

I have a great respect for people who understand topics or concepts which I do not understand yet, but which I nevertheless place on a pedestal as pinnacles of programming wisdom.

I have deeply held convictions about text editors. Really, it’s better not to talk about it. Just walk away.

I am strongly attached to the frameworks and libraries which I approve of, and repulsed by the ones of which I do not approve. Large libraries which I like are multifaceted, while the ones which I do not like are bloated. Small libraries which I like are elegant and efficient, while those which I do not like are incomplete or trivial.

I have strong opinions about Operating Systems. People who are not using my favorite Operating System would be far more productive if they would simply “wake up” and get “real computers”. Brilliant people whom I respect but who nevertheless use other Operating Systems are exempt.

We should talk about indentation some more. I hold opinions on whether said indentations should use spaces or tabs, and how many spaces they should use. They are only opinions. However, if you do not share them, you are probably wrong.

When there is more than one way to do something, I will have an opinion on which is the best way to do it. This opinion is correct, although I may tell you that your way of doing it is fine also. I am just being nice. Your way is retarded, slow, inefficient, insufficiently clever, unmaintainable, obfuscated or deprecated, pick two.

I have opinions about software development methodologies. These opinions cover project management styles, agile methodologies, artifacts, modeling languages, and best practices. Projects which fail to do well invariably failed because they neglected an area which I feel very strongly about, and will describe to you in great detail if you show a sign you are interested.

I am deeply attached to my preferred tool for source control management, which is better than your preferred tool for source control management, unless you happen to prefer the same one, in which case you are correct.

I have a favorite computer acronym, a favorite obsolete piece of hardware, a favorite programming anecdote, joke, historical event, and aphorism. I have a favorite algorithm, meme, binary operator, ascii character and UTF entity. I have a favorite NP Complete problem, which is more interesting than your favorite NP Complete problem, even though they can both be shown to be reducible to a common problem, or even to each other.

Despite my not yet having designed or created a killer app, I am convinced that I know why other apps have failed, and will not hesitate to share this knowledge if prompted. Despite having not run a multi-million dollar technology company, I know exactly what is wrong with the companies which are out there, and how they could be fixed.

Just don’t ask me about politics or religion, now; I prefer not to be argumentative on the internet.