At the time Flash was used extensively for UI development, and artists were able to pretty easily create animations and author their own screens.
Nowadays the technology has gone to other places and more than ever artists are locked out of the workflow and reliant on programmers to implement even the most trivial of things.
I read the link. Can't tell, if it is meant for real or satire.
Anyway, no. No good programmer needs to make things more complicated on purpose, to earn a living. The bugfilled world of IT is complicated enough as it is and always was like this.
> And yes, it is a spoof, obviously. That is obvious from its content alone, and it follows a long tradition of similar spoofs. However, enough people must have fallen for it, because Bjarne Stroustrup has felt the need to publish a rather irritated disclaimer in his FAQ!
Nowadays the technology has gone to other places and more than ever artists are locked out of the workflow and reliant on programmers to implement even the most trivial of things.