One of your main jobs is to keep in touch with developers. What are they asking for right now?
Higher levels of productivity. They just want to get more done. Twenty years ago it was the high-speed compiler, integrated debugging, higher level of abstractions, or component libraries to try to get more done. These days it's things like refactoring. You can modify your code by going into a visual view and dragging a method to another object. Unit testing is another big area. You've just defined an object and some methods, and you want to test it right away. You don't want to wait or give it to some tester. Then there's the whole collaboration thing. Things like extreme programming, to get higher levels of quality by having programmers and users work more tightly together.
It's interesting that you mention integrated testing, as historically testing has been done separately, and programmers have often taken the attitude of, "Nobody needs to test my code, because it's perfect."
Part of it is that testing runs counter to the idea of getting functionality done. But sometimes that path gets you stuck, and you have to back up and rearchitect. So having as much visibility in the testing as in the design and implementation is a good thing.
ABOUT DAVID INTERSIMONE
As Borland's vice president of developer relations and chief evangelist, David Intersimone is responsible for the Borland Developer Network and the Borland Technology Partner (BTP) programme. He also works with professional programmers to ensure that their feedback is fed into Borland's product planning.
Intersimone joined Borland in 1985 as director of product services, and has also worked as director of research and development for languages and tools. Prior to joining Borland, he was director of product services for Softsel Computer Products - now Merisel.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from California Polytechnic State University.
reader comments