Development Abstraction Layer

{

Joel is at it again. In his most recent essay, The Development Abstraction Layer, he asserts that management at a software company should build an "abstraction layer" that eliminates all distractions from the programmers except programming. Programmers are to be cushioned in the best environment possible to think:

A programmer is most productive with a quiet private office, a great computer, unlimited beverages, an ambient temperature between 68 and 72 degrees (F), no glare on the screen, a chair that's so comfortable you don't feel it, an administrator that...

Okay stop Joel! That is the perfection that I dream of but have yet to really be placed into. In a different thread, however, I get my answer as to why:

But of course, it really depends on where you are in the foodchain. For Developers, I've always considered it to be:

Bottom - Coroporate IT Department Developers. Developers are a cost center

Middle - Internet Company. Developers are part of the core business strategy.

Top - Shrinkwrap Vendors. Developers are the profit center.

Generally speaking this seems to be true. Because my experience has primarily to do with corporate environments, there is a vast difference between that programmer experience and that of, say, your average programmer at Google.

My current employer is good to us, however - most of that seems to come from the fact that the principal is himself a programmer. As a result we have excellent hardware, software, beverages, chairs, and reading material.

}