You ask why this seems so pervasive? I have a theory. Many programmers come out of school with teachers who are has beens or never were’s. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat in lectures with instructors that would spend 2/4ths of the class telling “war stories” of the same three contracts that make the entire sum of their real world experience as if it was some kind of mystical knowledge that they were passing on. Arrogance breeds arrogance. The best instructors that I have had where PH.d’s who were not afraid to say they didn’t know, and then proceeded to find out how right there in class. I personally try and model my self as a programmer after these instructors and not the former.

A few things that I would have to say is important to understand would be:

1) that it is called “Computer Science” for a reason. I do not consider my self an “Artist” but rather a scientist or an engineer. My job is to get the task done as efficiently as possible(not as beautifully as possible).

2) Some times we have to do things the “wrong” way in order to get the job done. I truly appreciate W3C standards, and I even try and code xhtml strict. Sometimes, it is necessary that the page functions the way the client intends rather than for it to validate as the W3C intends. Who pays my bills?

3) Tools. They are all tools. I am primarily a php/mysql developer and alot of php developers are very anal about their object oriented skillz. Just because you can code oo in php doesn’t mean you have to code oo for EVERYTHING. Objects and Functions are both tools that should be used alternatively when needed. Why would I use a 100+ line class to send an email when a six line function gets the job done?