hmmm. a bit harsh and inaccurate to call him "not a programmer." We are all really just digital stage managers.
Here's the secret to understanding the difference between API'ists and low-level programmers: time-to-market.
iOS programming is deeply mainstream in the market right now, so elaborate frameworks are available for it. GameBoy was waaaay ahead of its time and had no APIs for developing.
The same is true today: If you want to get ahead of the market, you can take the hit in complexity and develop for a lower-level of hw/sw, like the Parallela, in exchange for a short-term advantage, but there's no mainstream market yet. Or, you can write a great iOS app today, but you won't be the first. The initiative was lost a long time ago.
It's all about withstanding the headaches of bleeding-edge HW and SW, versus gaining the edge of being earlier to market.
If you're assembling a team, you want a range of abilities, from lowest-level people who can tell you what's really going on down deep inside up to the APIists who can leverage the work of many others to get access to widely-used features.
What makes you think that a "low-level programmer" can't do time-to-market stuff? That's like saying that a professional writer and proofreader can't fire off a quick SMS to his friends (sometimes with a typo, but nobody cares).
ah, i can see how my comment could create confusion.
I was actually intending agree with you, to mean that the low-level programmers are precisely those individuals who achieve the time-to-market. They can wade through the specs and configure devices before the polished API becomes available.
Here's the secret to understanding the difference between API'ists and low-level programmers: time-to-market.
iOS programming is deeply mainstream in the market right now, so elaborate frameworks are available for it. GameBoy was waaaay ahead of its time and had no APIs for developing.
The same is true today: If you want to get ahead of the market, you can take the hit in complexity and develop for a lower-level of hw/sw, like the Parallela, in exchange for a short-term advantage, but there's no mainstream market yet. Or, you can write a great iOS app today, but you won't be the first. The initiative was lost a long time ago.
It's all about withstanding the headaches of bleeding-edge HW and SW, versus gaining the edge of being earlier to market.
If you're assembling a team, you want a range of abilities, from lowest-level people who can tell you what's really going on down deep inside up to the APIists who can leverage the work of many others to get access to widely-used features.