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If you take a look at software today, you'll see more smart people building things than there ever have been before. The problem? They're all working in different languages, on different platforms, with different concepts. To take advantage of the full breadth of work that's being done, we need to stay on top of things happening in other communities, and we need to bring good ideas back to Ruby. In this session, we'll look at how to identify great code and concepts, and how to bring them back to our community.
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In the talk titled "Great Developers Steal," Ben Scofield explores the concept of intellectual borrowing in software development, drawing parallels to music. He introduces the idea that great developers, like great artists, build upon existing ideas rather than create entirely new concepts from scratch. This discussion revolves around three main forms of borrowing in music: sampling, influence, and covers, which are analogously applied to software development. Key points discussed include: - **Sampling**: This method involves taking snippets of existing music, akin to using libraries in software, where developers integrate other people's code into their projects. An example is the work of Girl Talk, who masterfully combines samples into new compositions. - **Influence**: Comparison is made to how musicians like Jimi Hendrix inform the work of others. In software, similar patterns arise when developers adopt ideas from various frameworks, as seen in the evolution of unit testing tools like JUnit derived from Smalltalk programming. - **Covers**: These are similar to porting concepts in software; they can be faithful or poorly executed adaptations of established ideas. A good example is NUnit, which is critiqued for not fully translating the essence of JUnit into the .NET context. The session emphasizes the importance of understanding and interpreting outside influences. Scofield highlights how borrowing can enhance creativity and problem-solving in programming. He mentions significant developments like BDD (Behavior Driven Development) and how frameworks often share lineage, driving innovation through cross-pollination of ideas. He encourages developers to seek ideas from various programming languages and frameworks, describing this practice as a necessary form of adaptation and education in the developer's journey. Scofield concludes by underscoring the necessity of borrowing and adapting rather than literal copying in lifeblood of creativity in software. By shifting perspectives from stealing to adaptation, developers can leverage external innovations to solve challenges effectively.
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