Development Today
For those that have been developing for a while, one may have noticed that fundamentally the process is similar to that when they first started even as far back as basic in the days of DOS. No matter what language someone may program in today, if they look at another language they may not use they will find similar structure and design patterns used between them. Syntax of the code may be something that is harder to understand but following what the code itself is doing one can at least follow if they have been programing for a while to know what is being done, or at least what the developer is attempting to accomplish.
Over the years I personally have programed within several different languages (most I might add are no longer used in main stream development) and have found that following code I may not know is still something that is possible. As an example I was asked at one point to write a basic application in AS3 a language I had no experience with what so ever. I read several articles showing examples of other applications and found that the design patterns where almost exactly the same as the C# code I had been writting at the time with different syntax (or commands). Using that information I built the application in less than a day by doing nothing more than looking up the correct syntax to do what I wanted.
This brings me to the "meat" of my article. As developers we tend to get stuck in what is the "right" way to program a program. Yet as an old saying goes there is 100 ways to skin a cat. The same thing goes for development as well. As technology and coding continues to advance there will be new ways to accomplish what is considered the "right way" to program or design an application. Senior developers need to know that they can learn from Junior developers just as much as Junior developer can learn from Seniors. Creating "toolbox" dlls that can be moved from one application to another so that a developer does not have to replicate code over and over again is an acceptible design process, and can save a lot of time in development and testing as its already been proven to work if coded correctly. Modular design techniques within your code can make troubleshooting bugs easier and faster to correct. All of these are just basic ideas that some developers are already starting to adopt. Who knows what the next development breakthrough to save time might be. Allways keep an open mind when you are going through design sessions and make sure that if you are to reject and idea that there is a good reason why. Sometimes its a good idea if there is time to create a proof of concept to see if that idea does work, and how it will impact that portion of the application before rejecting it completly.
As Albert Einstein once said "A true genius admits he/she knows nothing". This can easily be used for developers as well. I say a great developer is one that knows there is always another or newer way to program or design an application. So as a developer always keep learning, keep looking at new ideas, keep colaborating with other developers, and keep creating the next new idea. To quote one of my kids favorite disney movie Meet the Robinsons "Keep Moving Foward".
