Brian Moelk wrote:
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#1: I believe that Delphi developers are more loyal to CodeGear and
Delphi than they should be to the detriment of their own self
interest. They are not as open minded as other developers in other
communities to new technologies, languages, etc.
As you know, I strongly disagree.
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#2: Your statement about my personal open mindedness in regards to my
assessment of the Delphi Community and comparatively with other
Delphi developers.
It is in regards to #2 that I thought you were starting to get ugly.
I didn't call anyone out in particular.
I was specifically commenting on your assertion that the Delphi
community was less open minded, but that you didn't include yourself in
that judgement.
I guess I just don't understand your criteria. I suspect that you mean
the subset of the community that refuses to look at any alternatives
out of some sense of stubbornness or some other reason that's equally
irrational.
Which means we just disagree on how many developers this actually
describes, and if it's more common in the Delphi community.
So maybe this is a very broad point that we can agree on:
If you're a developer, you owe it to yourself to expand your horizons.
All professions, really, but we're trying to stay on topic.
- Make the time to create a project in a completely different language,
even if you're just a hobbyist. There are more free tools and
tutorials around than you can shake a stick at.
- Read some of the Linux kernel blogs or mailing lists to get a feel
for how they manage revisions and why. Or some of the Java groups and
find out why they have advanced the cause of "best practices" more than
pretty much anyone.
- Go to technically oriented user group meetings, even if they aren't
directly related to what you're working on right now. Just pick
something that sounds fun or interesting. Meet other professionals in
your field and see what drives them. Make a point of sticking around
afterward if some of them get together for after meeting drinks. The
Delphi user group here always has a "beer sig".
- Take some courses. Evening classes don't cost much and only take up
one night a week.
- If you're working for a company, see if you can convince them that
sending you to training courses and/or technical conferences is in
their best interests. If it's out of town, make sure you fly out the
day after it ends. use the last night as an opportunity to get
together with some of the people you met at the conference for a final
(hopefully expensed) meal and some conversation. Who knows? You may
find yourself doing business with some of these people.
- Look through the project palette in your favourite development tool
and try something you've never tried before.
- Try out new features you've never tried before from the reviewer's
guide or the "Improvements since Delphi 7" posts.
- Sign up at Buzz-3D and check out the video training and Liz's
challenges in the Delphi Programming Classroom. These are not your
typical "hello world" challenges, either.
- Subscribe to technical blogs.
- Watch some online training videos and/or live chats. Codegear and
Microsoft have a lot, and there are any number of technical podcasts
available for free on iTunes.
- Try to find a video of John Lam talking about Ruby. Aside from the
Ruby specifics, he makes a pretty convincing argument for just trying
different things.
The worst that can happen is that you'll find some things that you
don't like or that just don't apply to you. What's more likely is that
you'll learn that you have more options than you previously thought.
The professional development (and demonstrated interest in same) won't
hurt your employment opportunities, either.
What do you have to lose?
--
Regards,
Bruce McGee
Glooscap Software
