Developers complain about Microsoft's level of code writing: It was so good back then, but now it's so good

Abstract:

In the eyes of ordinary people, Microsoft's image is polarizing. In the eyes of many developers around the world, Microsoft is the same company. It is the godfather of many programmers, but its current code level makes people speechless. Former Google programmer Julian Harris posted a post that resonated with many people, saying that Microsoft is a company full of contradictions. They have written such excellent programming books to teach people how to write good code, among which "Code Complete" is simply a bible for him.

But he changed the topic and mentioned that recently his customers were using Teams and SharePoint.

As a result, he found that almost every aspect of the technology stack of these software was the worst, slowest, and most error-prone of all other software he had used in the past 10 years.

He said it was almost unique in how bad it was and that such mediocrity had disappeared 20 years ago.

His last sentence reflects the confusion that many developers have about Microsoft.

Why can Microsoft still write such poor software now that it is easier to do the right things with many things?

This developer mentioned that the Chinese translation of "Code Complete" written by Microsoft is "Code Complete", which was a book published in 1993. To be honest, the Chinese translation is different from the original meaning. The Chinese translator deliberately changed the name to XX Encyclopedia, so that people who buy the book think they are buying a programming encyclopedia.

However, this translation is not correct, and it does confirm the status of this book.

It has a score of 9.3 on Douban, and has long been among the top 10 programming books on Douban

The skills and experiences taught in many programming books over the past 30 years have long been outdated, but this book has always been recognized as a classic. What it conveys to programmers is not fancy skills or personal talent, but a set of foundations for building modern software engineering, which will not be outdated even today when AI code writing surpasses the vast majority of developers.

The problem now is this. How glorious and classic Microsoft was back then, programmers who benefited from Microsoft back then are so sad and confused when they see what Microsoft is like now.

The person who expressed this emotion came from Google.

Even if Microsoft is not his Bai Yueguang, seeing such a character becomes a counterexample in his textbook