How much freedom should a programmer have in choosing a language and framework?
- by Spencer
I started working at a company that is primarily a C# oriented. We have a few people who like Java and JRuby, but a majority of programmers here like C#. I was hired because I have a lot of experience building web applications and because I lean towards newer technologies like JRuby on Rails or nodejs.
I have recently started on a project building a web application with a focus on getting a lot of stuff done in a short amount of time. The software lead has dictated that I use mvc4 instead of rails. That might be OK, except I don't know mvc4, I don't know C# and I am the only one responsible for creating the web application server and front-end UI.
Wouldn't it make sense to use a framework that I already know extremely well (Rails) instead of using mvc4? The two reasons behind the decision was that the tech lead doesn't know Jruby/rails and there would be no way to reuse the code.
Counter arguments:
He won't be contributing to the code and is frankly, not needed on
this project. So, it doesn't really matter if he knows JRuby/rails or not.
We actually can reuse the code since we have a lot of java apps that
JRuby can pull code from and vice-versa. In fact, he has dedicated
some resources to convert a Java library to C#, instead of just
running the Java library on the JRuby on Rails app. All because he
doesn't like Java or JRuby
I have built many web applications, but using something unfamiliar is causing some spin-up and I am unable to build an awesome application in as short of a time that I'm used to. This would be fine, learning new technologies is important in this field. The problem is, for this project, we need to get a lot done in a short period of time.
At what point should a developer be allowed to choose his tools? Is this dependent on the company? Does my company suck or is this considered normal? Do greener pastures exist? Am I looking at this the wrong way?
Bonus: Should I just keep my head down and move along at a snails pace, or defy orders and go with what I know in order to make this project more successful?
Edit: I had actually created a fully function rails application (on my own time) and showed it to the team and it did not seem to matter. I am currently porting it to mvc4 (slowly).
