On loving (and hating) software, and how crippling it is to run in high heels

penny@she.geek.nz (Penny) — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:07:56 +0200

I have a well established (and well deserved) reputation for hating MySQL and being a Postgres fan. While this is functionally true, I want to examine what is actually behind it.

I tried to find an analogy recently to explain this to my friend Michel, and the best I could come up with was (and actually I think it fits perfectly) the following:

Imagine that you are an athlete. A runner. And you have the most amazing comfortable ergonomic shoes. These shoes fit you perfectly, they are tailored to exactly your body, the way you run. They help you run faster, they enable you to excel at the sport that you have chosen. Then imagine that for whatever reason, you join a running club, and this running club has a policy of running in high heels.

"But why would you do that?!", you exclaim in dismay. "When you could use these other shoes, which are much more comfortable and actually help you run faster".
"Ah well", they reply. "We've always run in high heels and it works fine for us".

That is how I feel whenever I have to touch MySQL.

I remember having seen one of Kathy Sierra's talks about creating passionate users - not sure where, maybe Webstock 2007. 'Passionate users' is something that may seem absurd to many computer users who struggle with daily computer use (I have written about this before), but the reality is that I am a passionate user. There are certain pieces of software that I use every day, and feel passionate about! While writing this blog post, I realised that what I'm really talking about here is tools - things that I use in my daily work as a software developer.

I honestly love working with Postgres. I love working with Git. There are actually times where I need to do something, or solve a problem, and I feel like this software helps me do it. After I solve the problem I am grateful to be able to work with such tools. This is where the random "I love postgres!" or "I love git" tweets come from.

This is a really important point - it's not that I hate MySQL (although I do), or CVS or SVN (also true) - it's that I actually love Postgres and Git, and when I need, for whatever reason, to work with Mysql or CVS or SVN, I really miss the features that make me love their competitors.

Of course, this fails to take into account that different pieces of software have different purposes and features, and this is a good thing, because diversity encourages competition which makes software improve. Interestingly, I don't know if I feel this way about all software - I love Vim, but I don't hate Emacs - I just don't use it. When I have to use Emacs (it happens), I am sometimes frustrated that it's different - but I blame myself for that (not knowing it well enough), rather than blaming the software for being substandard. I'm not sure if Vim is any better or worse than Emacs - Vim just suits me better. In the case of Mysql and Postgres, I actually think that Mysql is substandard, and similarly for Git and CVS or SVN.

There seems to be a scale for my reaction to using different software:

Love: I feel that the software is predictable, elegant and helps me achieve what I want and get my work done. I sometimes feel love for it when it's particularly helpful.
Ambivalence: I use the software, but don't feel particularly strongly about it.
Hatred: Using it actively hinders me working, because it is lacking features I need, or is unpredictable and unreliable. I feel despair when I have to use it.

Obviously, the two extremes are both forms of passion, although I'm sure that the first is what Kathy Sierra was talking about. But I wonder if the software that falls into the third category only exists when there is a competing piece of software that falls into the first category. If I had never used Postgres, would I hate MySQL so much? Probably not, although I might hate it a little bit. I'm sure people that have always run in high heels and never experienced how much easier it is to run in sneakers don't hate their high heels, because they don't know any different.

So the conclusion I must draw, is that I don't actually hate MySQL or CVS or SVN - I hate being forced to use tools that I consider to be substandard than their equivalents, which I actually love. To me this is such a black and white issue I am completely baffled when other people don't see it. Considering the way that most people interact with their computers, if software exists that actually makes people feel love - why on earth would they use anything else?

she.geek.nz - planetmahara

On loving (and hating) software, and how crippling it is to run in high heels