Just be better than Apple

In my household, when the complaints aren’t about less than flawless Internet speeds, they usually are about Apple software. Albeit, my Macbook Air’s keyboard is falling apart, but that’s not crazy considering its age. If memory serves correct, suffering due to OS software hasn’t run this rampant since Windows 95. But incredibly, this presents us software writers with an opportunity.

Dismal

I’ve stopped counting all the problems with Apple software in the last couple of years. It’s gotten bad.

The latest gripe in my house was something to do with the iWatch. Some mandatory patch ended up making the watch buzz quite often, as if there was an alarm being triggered via the netherworld.

Observing yet another Apple blunder, I could only shake my head and say: ‘Software is tricky, but boy, iteration is fast and loose in the Valley…’

Comparatively

The software I write with Erlang/OTP, tends to be correct. My functions clock in around four lines of code, everything reads like English; after a green light with dialyzer, I usually stop there. And lo, no bugs!

To be fair, I don’t write systems that get pounded like iTunes, but I sleep better after shipping code more than any other time in my career, largely thanks to Erlang/OTP.

Writing solid code, however you can manage it, should make your users elated. We are now accustomed to ‘Stop The World’ garbage collections on our phones, online banks that toggle to maintenance mode during business hours, and software patches that are teeming with bugs. If you can be an excellent craftsman, now’s the time that your care will not go unnoticed.

Software is a mess, but it doesn’t have to be. If you pick the right tools and write code even ten times more airtight than Apple, then your product will stand out; and remarkably so!