How to be a portable programmer.
Everyone and their mother should at this point realize that portability is a virtue in the software community. So much so that it is often the primary goal of a project. Why is it then that we programmers who are striving to create portable libraries/applications are not also ourselves striving to be more portable. Too often I am confronted by a developer/engineer wanting to do something in a specific, non-standard way because thats the way “they” do things. Or “thats the way it’s done over in project X” or “thats the way we have been doing it for years.” Instead of trying to understand why you should setup your environment in the same fashion that the “community” does or using the design patterns that the core developers creating software library/framework X do, they try to backport their personal preferences into the use of the library/framework and then complain when they can’t get things to work. It should be a goal amongst software engineers to not only create portable software but rather to live in a portable mindset entirely. At least professionally. I can say for sure that if you do try at all times to be more maleable in your preferences. To use vanilla/standards-based/best-practice proven patterns and idioms in all of your professional duties. You will find your jobs easier. You will find working in groups easier. You will find life easier.