Getting Whacky with MoSync

Recently I was asked to take part in a survey. It was a collection of questions designed to delve into my deepest thoughts and extract the hidden meaning out of my answers; the fact that I just go on clicking randomly at options seems not to discourage them from sending these surveys to chumps like me. But then again, even though my answers were always random, I did read the questions. Why you might ask? Dunno I would answer...so don't ask. So yes, where were we...aah the survey.

The survey was a collection of questions just like any other survey with multiple choice answers and other similar annoying formats which made sure a semblance of a meaning could be extracted from any random filling of answers. This survey though was on Mobile Applications. Working at MoSync AB, I had been trained like a bloodhound to keep my ears and eyes open for the word mobile (though of course the bloodhound would have trained its nose..my nose is tuned for fine cuisine, so I could only spare my eyes and ears). So for the first time in a long time, I went through the survey as methodically as my old English teacher would have gone through my assignments with her red pen.

At the end, I felt it had been a waste of my time...same old boring nonsense. "What do you think makes an ideal app", "How important is the User Interface to you" ... but then again on closer inspection you have to wonder, its all about the user..I mean is there no joy for developers? Are the days of programming for the love of it gone? Did Picasso paint wondering, will the observer like to see an unblemished face or did he just go crazy and paint an eye here and an ear there... Wait just a minute, did you just have a flicker of thought whence you said, but programming isn't art? Are you kidding me?

Programming and the arts are so similar its unnerving. For example lets take programming and poetry... Programming : Syntax Poetry : Meter and verse Programming : Data Structures Poetry : Sonnets, etc. Programming : Operators Poetry : Literary devices, puns and so on. I could go on you know..but I'll stop here. It is not the viewpoint of this blog post to discourage you from being more user oriented, but remind you that the foundations of computer engineering was in programming for the love of it. Finding joy in making the computer jump through hoops for you. We at MoSync encourage you to go crazy, create some crazy apps to satisfy your innate curiosity; this we think will sustain and nurture a more curious generation of programmers.

May the Force be with you.