Golden Rule: a Developer is not a Priest
One may ask what do the two figures can have in common. It’s better explained with a preamble.
Today I was reviewing a website (link no longer available, sorry) created by my protégé, when I spotted something that inspired me to write this post. As I usually do, I visited it using several browsers, to check if pages render correctly in all of them. When I opened it with Internet Explorer, all I got was the following message:
We don’t like Internet Explorer.
I’ve seen many websites declaring a browser preference, usually in the form of “this website is optimized for browser X, version Y”, but this is the first one that clearly rejects one so “harshly”. I know the author of the website and I’m aware of the reason why he decided to do it, but, personally, I don’t recommend taking such position.
The message reminded me of an (unfortunately) common issue in the world of Software Development: technological religion. This term can can be described as an almost-fanatic preference of a tool over another, and it explains the title. Read more
