Programming

my faceChris Foley is a computer programming enthusiast. He loves exploring new programming languages and crafting nice solutions. He lives in Glasgow, Scotland and works as a software developer.

Scottish Referendum: The Day After the Night Before

Scotland has just held a referendum for independence. We were asked "Should Scotland be an independent country? Yes or No."

We voted No by a small majority: 55.3%

I'm not about to start putting my political views online but I've been asked in the comments to write about the mood in Scotland the day after the vote.

It's anticlimactic.

I don't know what the media coverage has been like in the rest of the world but you have to understand that all the excitement and optimism belonged to the Yes camp. They were envisaging Scotland as a clean slate. All the injustices, inefficiencies and compromises of Britain would go away. We could shake out all the historical baggage and create the perfect utopian state.

This is exciting stuff. It's exactly how I feel whenever I start a new software project. Each time, "this one is going to be perfect, this time I am going to get it right."

The no camp didn't see a blank canvas upon which to craft our perfection. They saw a messy disentanglement, shattered dreams when it didn't work out and a bleak future. This is not exciting stuff. It's a gnarly refactoring. That function that everyone is too scared to touch. They don't necessarily like the status-quo in Britain but don't see independence as the correct solution.

In the run up to the referendum, this was characterised by the conversations people had. "Yes" voters would talk excitedly about the issues surrounding the referendum. "No" voters preferred to avoid the subject altogether.

Today, the Yes camp have suffered a defeat. Their excitement is gone. The nation as a whole had braced themselves for a massive change but nothing is changing.

How does any of this affect my code? Not one bit.

19 September 2014

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