I don’t understand. I always end up writing libraries.
I wanted to write an application. I wanted to get started this week. I talked to the guy that did pixel art for me last time, he was all over that.
And then I spent the rest of the week dusting off two old libraries, and starting a completely new project.
I do this to myself, clearly. I guess it will be nice to have a native 2d physics library, though. That’s always how this shit starts…
I have a thing with buzzwords. They bug me a lot. I get annoyed whenever someone spews a bunch of meaningless crap at me to try and impress me, and it usually makes me turn around before even listening to the actual meat part.
It’s not fancy words that bother me, here, by the way, it’s -empty- words. Sheeple’s description (and Sheeple’s old API) is meant as a nice big jab at those buzzword-crazed software jerks out there that dump their garbage text into the interbutts as if it were some kind of toilet — and I’m expected to like their shit.
Here’s an example of what I mean. This one is from IBM’s Jazz:
Vision:
Jazz is an IBM Rational initiative to help make software delivery teams more effective.
Inspired by the artists who transformed musical expression, Jazz is an initiative to transform software delivery by making it more collaborative, productive and transparent, through integration of information and tasks across the phases of the software lifecycle.
Wow! Inspired by a revolution in one of the arts! This must be good!
[As a side note, the whole "Vision" thing inspired me to do the same for Sheeple, and I learned some new empty phrases to shove into its description from this site 
]
Here’s the question, though: What the fuck is it? There’s talk about development, about collaboration… is it some kind of project management system? A new Github or something? Is it some kind of software-as-a-service scam? Is it a patent? I don’t know!
Apparently, neither did the /. crowd.
Turns out it’s not even anything tangible. It’s some sort of ‘framework’ of a lot of things, which sort of includes an integrated project management system. Great. You know how much I got out of their official ‘Vision’ description? Nothing of value.
Don’t get me wrong, though. Fancy-sounding words don’t necessarily mean it’s full of buzzwords. Take this example from the wikipedia article on concurrency:
The design of concurrent systems often entails finding reliable techniques for coordinating their execution, data exchange, memory allocation, and execution scheduling to minimize response time and maximise throughput.[citation needed]
[citation needed] is included for lulz.
Now, that’s got some fancy-sounding stuff in it, but it’s actually very descriptive. It might not be entirely accurate, according to wikipedia, but I understand what it means. Running things concurrently presents problems as to how all these things running at the same time are supposed to keep each other updated, how this is supposed to be allocated and managed in memory in the actual implementation, etc. If you have things such as processes communicating, you want to put as much stuff through the pipe in as little time as possible. Otherwise, shit slows down and sucks balls.
I think part of the reason I’m so bitchy about buzzwords is because I find one of its implications offensive: That I’m so vapid and shallow and unaware of my surroundings or the things I do that you can through random marketing speak at me, and I’ll buy whatever you want to sell me, because it sounds shiny.
This kind of bullshit might work on executives (I am never ashamed of jabbing at them), but it’s something I actively try and reject. I’m sure I can fall for it as well, though. YMMV.
Speaking of buying awesome shit:
I’m incredibly tempted. Fair trade cotton?! Donation to EFF and FSF?! I’m strapped for cash right now, but this might be an offer I can’t refuse. Maybe I’ll just get one for my fiancée. (She has a crush on the guy. (So do I.))