The past two years I’ve had the chance to interact with over 500+ developers on this African continent - I’ve attended Developer events across the continent from Kampala, Lagos, Accra, Nairobi and interacted with developers from Cairo, Kinshasa, Jo’bug, Maputo, Dar-es-salaam, Monrovia, Kigali, Juba, Lusaka and Dakar.

At events like GTUG’s, DevFests, Barcamps, Where camps, Google G Days, Hackathons, RHoK’s, University Talks, code-labs - name it, I’ve been there. So I feel confident to write about my findings. I have put thesedevelopers in 3 different categories with characteristics relating them to previous African dictators. From my findings i can say these are the kinds of developers you will find in Africa.

Developer Charles Taylor
Just like Charles Taylor , these developer’s strongest weapons are rape and torture of existing code. They willalways exploit existing tools to construct something to meet the client’s needs.

Developers in this category are the guys who have only mastered CMS’s (Content management systems) the likes of Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, concrete5 etc. These guys can edit and patch up the source code, they can tweak these platforms to what they really need them to do. They only edit, re-arrange, pull out, make few changes and have what they need. They can’t build a module from scratch or re-write one.

Just like Charle Taylor’s wealth, some thing i noticed also is that these guys are rich in work to showcase - sites, blogs, templates etc they have and can show you what they have done. At Tech events these guys have very little to contribute as they can’t really write code and work in groups. Something I’ve also noticed with these guys is that a few are moving to RAD platforms like cakephp, codeigniter. Most of the developers in this category write code in or understand PHP.

Developer Robert Mugabe
Just like Robert Mugabe these developers mostly have gone to school and passed through some British/colonial education (programming lessons). They have Microsoft certifications or have done some IT/CS schooling. They use any Microsoft tools given to them and they only know those tools. Developers under this category mostly run on Windows machines and code in Java and .Net Technologies. These guys have some good programming knowledge but purely base everything they do on what they learnt in school.

I’ve noticed that most of the people who win prizes at Tech/Coding events fall under this category. The thing I hate about these guys is that they are rigid, don’t try new things, stick to Java and .Net technologies and are not willing to learn new technologies. They are not into FOSS technologies and know nothing about **nix platforms. They don’t contribute to Open source initiatives so you won’t see them own github or Google code accounts, they have all their code on their laptops. The thing I like with these guys is that they get things done.

Developer Idi Amin
Just like Idi Amin a primary 3 drop-out who didn’t go to school but rose through the ranks in the army to reach far as to rule a Country, these developers mostly have learnt whatever skills they got on their own. I’ve noticed that they mostly own Linux / Mac Machines. They code in languages like Perl, Erlang, Bash, Python, PHP, C++ etc.

Just like Amin who declared him self President for life, these developers at Code events don’t like to be told what to do or how to do things, they just want to be left alone to figure out everything on their own. Something I’ve noticed with these guys is that they understand the OOP principles and can build modules from first principles (bottom - up). They also have another problem, they have nothing to showcase as most of their code / projects are incomplete.

On top of development these guys know basic Sys Admin on Linux platforms and for development, they go as far as understanding coding styles, re-factoring, code readability, Test driven development, Scrum, Modeling etc. These guys also care about nitty gritty things like memory and CPU usage etc.

Developers under this category also get things done but need lots of patience on your side, you need to take them delicately as they are easily offended. These are the kind of guys you will find sited in isolation at back of i-hub Nairobi , next to Pete’s coffee with dark screens and looking very busy like they are changing the world, yet they may just be installing a **nix patch.

The biggest problem with developers in this category is that they don’t have girlfriends and live all their lives on their laptops (including weekends) and some in the Bar.

All in all, I think most of the developers in Africa fall under the developer Charles Taylor and developer Robert Mugabe, that’s why the two most common languages used here in Africa are PHP and Java.

Original Post - http://thedatafugee..com/2012/11/the-3-types-of-developers-you-will-find.html

interestingly nice article.

lovely I fall under the Idi amin developer

i fall under the Idi amin developer

Very nice article. I couldn't but laugh when i finished reading this, and that was simply because almost everybody i know easily fits into one of these categories. But there are some guys that i know that doesn't fit into any of the category which includes myself.

Front page worthy seun?

This Write up Just Finished Afrikaans.. True tho..

You forgot developer nelson mandela. They believe in the new african software empire and oppose any white apertheid dominance in the I.T industry. People like Seun.
Also, we have the bokoharam developer, the hackers and crackers.

I began as robert mugabe, but by the GRACE of GOD, I'll soon be coding perfectly across platforms like ios, nix, linux, windows, e.t.c

Did I really fall under any of this categories.

I'm definately idi amin. But without the drinking and I do mix with the female folks. Nice

Majority of us in Nigeria are Idi-amin coders... But you wont rule out that they may have attributes from the other type of coders...

i can relate with what this dude is saying.

crappy post , this is so poo,

for the past three years or so, i was in the leagues of idi amin group but because i had nothing to show for it plus the fact that it is not profitable, i switched in the middle of this year to charles taylor group. With the wealth of experience garner from the previous idi amin group, i can extend and customize CMS by developing themes, plugins and modules (to be frank im still working on it trying to use my coding ability to work with open source systems like Drupal). hoping to flex with Subversion (SVN), Github and Drush next year insha Allah

Nice one OP. I'll say I fall under the category 3 (idi amin). But I think d reason why people use php and java more is because it's FREE and has a very large community. Not forgetting that it's cross platform. Opens source development is taking over, no wonder microsoft is making .NET open source. Big reason I prefer linux to windows.

wao @OP, i fit so perfectly in the idi amin group. Though i'm trying hard to making sure i build a big portfolio base..bt its nt easy, there is like tons of things to do!

ok noted

[size=16pt]How do you recognize Akpos in
School?
He is the one who erases the notes
from the book
when the teacher erases the board.[/size]

Alrite

Gud. My list is not these developer good luck jonathan
i start developing with no shoes but when i get in the middle of it, i became clueless

X

.

No need to book space cef...the thread is complicated

I am 50% Robert Mugabe, 30% Idi Amin, 20% Charles Taylor Depending on the situation and nature of the job.






Why money is hard to earn for most people
Source: e reporter.com.ng/index.php/business-news/item/1261-why-money-is-hard-to-earn-for-most-people

Truth be told , 70% of the ones in Nigeria are the CMS editor ones ,I've seen em ...very few real coders outchea

chibwike:
No need to book space cef...the thread is complicated

Always the ignorant one, aren't you?