The table also mentioned Powershell, VS.Net and VBScript
> And finally even if all the examples were in Windows terms, I hope that someone given the responsibility to interview new hires would be able to abstract from examples to general principles.
That may be true but I think Unix is something any programmer should at least be aware of.
Selective quoting, much?
- The context in which it mentions VS.Net: "Limited to primary IDE (VS.Net, Eclipse etc.) "
- The context in which it mentions Powershell and VBScript: "Perl/Python/Ruby/VBScript/Powershell "
So it describes a number of alternatives, some of which are for Windows-only, and all of a sudden the table is 'Windows-centric'?
I mean if you don't like Windows, fine, I don't care. But playing ostrich for anything Windows is just ignorance, and I mean that not in the 'not knowing' sense, but in the 'not wanting to know and proud of it', the 'ignorant hick' sense.
The 18 upvotes (as of now) of the GP make me sad. It makes me feel like many people voting are offended by the table because they don't score very well on it, and are looking for a reason to dismiss it, and oh look - something about Windows, that must be bad, because anyone using Windows or programming for it must be a moron.
I don't agree with all the details in this table, either; but that's irrelevant. This is a conceptual framework, a skeleton to apply further critical thinking on. It's been around for years and has been repeatedly upgraded and refined. It's not perfect but it's at least something. Outright dismissals of attempts at making programming and software engineering more quantitative processes, and - dare I say it - more like 'real engineering', and especially the dismissals based on hype technology fetishism, hold back real progress down in the trenches.
(oh and yes, I'd subtract just as many point for not knowing what 'PowerShell' is as I would for not knowing what 'Ruby' is, if any, in any interviews I'd do around this chart.)
Hmm looks like I have to retract this part - I'd swear I read this at least 5 years ago in a slightly different version and that I'd seen several updated versions since then, but now I can only find it going to 2008 on indiangeek.com. So I probably misremembered that part.
Mentioning a Windows-only technology doesn't make it Windows-centric.
Mentioning only a Windows-only technology? Now that's Windows-centric. However, I see no example of that in the list.
I bet nobody would flinch if they saw reference to a UNIX-exclusive technology, either. (I saw VSS was called out - but had this been written three years ealier, Git would be in that same boat.)