> It's deploying, testing, environment issues, metrics, databases, dns, etc. Basically it is a lot more complex than "learn to code".
I would even go further and say that such things are well over 50% of a working programmer's time. Learning the toolset for modern programming is as hard or harder than learning how to program well. It's a different kind of hard, though -- the ability to slog through tedium and frustration.
As someone who's gotten away from programming in the past few (er, several.. many... how old am I now anyway?) years, this kind of stuff is what keeps me from getting back in. I think "Oh, Clojure [or whatever] looks cool..." but by the time I get through installing a bunch of different programs and figuring out how to deploy something and whatnot, I never make it to really learning much. I just want to start up, you know, Borland Turbo C, and get to writing code.
I'm sure I'm making it more of a big deal than it is because I am old and cranky, but it really can seem daunting, even if it's only in appearance.
Polishing up a tiny corner of the tedium to make everyone's life a little easier is generally a rewarding effort that becomes out of date almost immediately.
I would even go further and say that such things are well over 50% of a working programmer's time. Learning the toolset for modern programming is as hard or harder than learning how to program well. It's a different kind of hard, though -- the ability to slog through tedium and frustration.