Repeating what I commented on the post itself, but this is a really interesting observation.
I can confirm from limited experience that this is happening. But the problem is that “giving Japanese programmers good frameworks and libraries” is not as easy as just handing them a package and being done with it. The pace of modern frameworks like Rails etc. is so fast that there is a big learning curve just getting used to staying in the loop.
We lost at least a week on a project I’m working on catching up when Rails 3.1 hit, because all these useful things (asset pipeline, etc.) require effort to tie into existing practices. Imagine the Japanese developer with limited English skill, trying to navigate the discussion threads like this one ( https://github.com/chriseppstein/compass/issues/337 ) (just as an example). It’s a lot of work.
So I think what happens is that, although re-inventing the wheel is a hell of a job, at least it means that the basic groundwork is constant and designed internally, whereas using frameworks means that you’re building on someone else’s work — usually non-Japanese, so not well documented in Japanese.
The biggest difference between myself and a Japanese programmer is that if I run into a problem I can jump on to Google and find huge amounts of English information (docs, forums, stackoverflow etc.) to help me solve it.
Japanese programmers who are not pretty damn fluent in English cannot do this and this really is a brick wall.
I haven't seen much NIH syndrome, mainly it is because they cannot effectively search the net libraries / apps that they can use; again due to the language barrier.
On the other hand, I will say that even as an English-speaker, I find myself recently skipping the "human language" explanation and jumping directly to the code when I read results from Google etc. I think this is probably the best strategy for anyone not adept at English: start from the code, and then when you don't understand something, go back to the explanation above/below it.
Yes but it doesn't help with thing not directly code related, environmental stuff etc... Which is usually the stuff I end up googling come to think of it.
Plus to dive into the code you have to have a reasonable idea where to start to look for your problem which can also be a barrier in a complicated project where the comments / guides / documentation is in English.
Maybe that says more about the hobbyist nature of programming in the West than anything else.
Westerners, who may have started programming out of personal interest, may simply spend more time after work building up social communities to solve problems they have at work.
In Japan programming may simply be viewed more as "a salary job" they could qualify for, filled with lots of uninspired folks who just want to grind through their shift and get the hell out of there at the end of the day.
At least that's how my friends who've worked in both Japanese and Western companies describe the situation.
In Japan programming may simply be viewed more as "a salary job" they could qualify for, filled with lots of uninspired folks who just want to grind through their shift and get the hell out of there at the end of the day.
Um, have you ever been to the US? It's like that here too.
So logically college in Japan should teach English just as much as programming.
I am from Austria and we need to do lots of coursework in English in economics because all the literature is English and you can't work in the profession without a good command of the language.
There is a difference between NIH and loosing 3 months a year translating documentation. How much time would you loose if 100% of ruby documentation was written in Japanese, and any question you had you had translate to Japanese to get it answered then translate the answer back to your native language?
I hear the weeaboos across the world now screaming “what about Ruby!”, but Ruby just proves the point. A Mormon Japanese dude (read: English literate, world-focused, non-Otaku, non-loner mindset) coupled with an excellent framework that gained fame world-wide (Rails). It’s nice that there are great Japanese Rubyists but they are not responsible for the popularity of the language.
Yes, Ruby (programming language) was, but Rails (a force-multiplying framework) wasn't. Also, anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but my observation was that Rails adoption was not nearly as strong among Japanese Rubyist as it was in other places.
One interesting phenomenon is the how Ruby and Rails are mostly in parallel worlds. It can't just be a language barrier. There are lots of initiatives like JRuby and Rubinius that are more or less ignored by the Ruby Core team.
With all the Ruby enthusiasts outside of Japan, it seems unnatural that most of the core commiters are still Japanese.
Yes, that's correct. Ruby is much more widely known that Rails, although I have the feeling that is changing.
A few years ago Cookpad (http://cookpad.com/), a Japanese recipe site with millions of users, switched to Rails. That may be contributing to a change in awareness locally.
Yes Cookpad is really involved in promoting Rails use in Japan - and they should be. Their user base boasts 1 in every 2 20-30y.o. women in Japan. Astounding metric.
I can confirm from limited experience that this is happening. But the problem is that “giving Japanese programmers good frameworks and libraries” is not as easy as just handing them a package and being done with it. The pace of modern frameworks like Rails etc. is so fast that there is a big learning curve just getting used to staying in the loop.
We lost at least a week on a project I’m working on catching up when Rails 3.1 hit, because all these useful things (asset pipeline, etc.) require effort to tie into existing practices. Imagine the Japanese developer with limited English skill, trying to navigate the discussion threads like this one ( https://github.com/chriseppstein/compass/issues/337 ) (just as an example). It’s a lot of work.
So I think what happens is that, although re-inventing the wheel is a hell of a job, at least it means that the basic groundwork is constant and designed internally, whereas using frameworks means that you’re building on someone else’s work — usually non-Japanese, so not well documented in Japanese.