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The marriot app sounds like a fine idea but poorly designed. Proper algorithm design could minimize yoyoing.

I don't mean to sound like an old codger, but programming ain't what it used to be.

Many of the latest generation of programmers seem to have no concept of the underlying processes that their software is supposed to automate or support. It seems lately that software is becoming more and more prettied up and graphic intense and less and less useful.

A what-should-be-frightening trend I've seen is that, as the software becomes an obstacle to accomplishment, people are starting to switch back to paper because they need to get their work done and the software isn't helping.

It's possible it's not the programmers at fault and they're just doing what they're told or not being given adequate specifications, but it seems so prevalent that I'm beginning to think developers have lost sight of why their software is supposed to exist.

That’s why electronic medical records haven’t turned out to be the panacea they were touted to be.

Doctors and nurses in hospitals hate them. They take up incredible amounts of time that could be devoted to patient care. Instead, everyone feels the pressure to “tend” to the computers first.

Don’t think patients don’t notice.

I've been saying this for a while now. Many developers of software that is targeted to end users requires very little programming. They now configure "black boxes" to interface together. Their logic is lost and undeveloped.

Many of the latest generation of programmers seem to have no concept of the underlying processes that their software is supposed to automate or support. It seems lately that software is becoming more and more prettied up and graphic intense and less and less useful.

Well a big issue with this is that there's so many new languages that don't actually use line-by-line programming. Ruby-on-Rails is an example where the program writes a lot of your code for you, so kids these days don't actually know how to do any basic programming. Also, yes, so many people I know in the business are all about GUI and making stuff look pretty. Instead of practical and easy to use.

A what-should-be-frightening trend I've seen is that, as the software becomes an obstacle to accomplishment, people are starting to switch back to paper because they need to get their work done and the software isn't helping.

Yup, I see this at work a bunch with our new-ish inventory software. There's several tweaks I would want to make stuff much easier, but they won't add it as an option because either it costs $$, or it's not a so-called 'best practice'. Also, it's all cloud based so when there's internet issues, we pretty much just have to shut down for a time. Without a local database/software instance, we are 100% dependent on internet access to do anything. So difficulty of use, plus some employees not fully knowing the software, adds up into us often using printed lists or writing stuff down instead.

As one who is both a business analyst and a programmer, I do believe that one should be both, trying to separate the roles is a disaster waiting to happen, too much gets lost in the “hand off”.

“Heads Down” coders should go the way of the “Dodo Bird”