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Journal Editorial + CVu Journal Vol 27, #6 - January 2016
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Title: Editorial: Choose your mask

Author: Martin Moene

Date: 07 January 2016 21:08:09 +00:00 or Thu, 07 January 2016 21:08:09 +00:00

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How much are we defined by the tools we use? I’ve written about this a little before, and if you’ve been a CVu reader for a while you’ll be familiar with much of Chris Oldwood’s Toolbox. And it is a rich vein for examination. For those of us closely aligned with software development (and I guess that’s probably most of you reading this), there is a huge variety of tools, and purposes to which they can be put. Partly that’s because there are so many purposes that have tools, but also a great deal of choice among tools for one particular task.

The vastness of this choice can appear overwhelming sometimes, and for some things it seems there’s a new tool every few minutes: new compiler version, new version control system, new editor, new bug tracking system, new web-server platform, new library to do /X/, new /X/...it’s a full-time task just staying aware of all the new tools, never mind evaluating them and learning enough to be able to use them properly. Which is why we choose a small set of things, and concentrate our efforts there.

This runs the obvious risk of not being able to take advantage of some new tool (or /X/) because we don’t even know it exists (which is why columns like Chris’s are so valuable), or unaware of wider changes in technology or practice that might make our jobs or lives easier, or perhaps we might just find interesting. One of the fundamental things that I think many of us (I’m thinking of ‘us’ as software developers, but really it’s more than that) have in common is a desire to learn new things. Whether we’re pushing some existing tool or technology beyond the bounds we know, or pushing ourselves into new arenas and different technology altogether, we are a curious bunch (deliberately ambiguous phrasing alert!).

The tools we choose to use, which to learn, which to ignore, which to create, definitely define us in some way or another, but the ease with which we can re-define those tools, and thereby ourselves, means we are more than a stereotype. So, learn a new thing today. Then write an article on it, and send it to me!

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