[ale] Off topic

[Jonathan Hart]

This is a disturbing trend:

It seems that we are dumbing down our successors.


How many times have one of us talked to someone about a computer related
topic and half way through you realize that they don't know anything below
the application layer.  And this is the guy you work with or report to.

I have had the misfortune to interview prospective programmers to work on
my development team before.  It is extremely difficult to find anyone who
understands the fundamentals of C, much less programming in general.  

I remember when I was a fledgeling programmer at GA Tech (all the way back
in '89) and they were teaching us HOW to program.  I think they started
with Pascal (does anyone these days even hear of that language?) before
they moved us to C.  Now, they didn't actually have a class on C, they
assumed that since they were teaching us the fundamentals of programming
that we could apply them to any language and learning C was just a matter
of picking up a new syntax.  Do they do this anymore ? I don't know, but I
can damn sure tell you that most programmers don't know how to transition
to a new language without it rocking their world.  I won't even go into
those who call themselves programmers but have never seen a language other
than Visual Basic.  Don't get me wrong, VB is a useful thing for society,
but those who use it are applications developers, not programmers.  There
is a difference.

I also remember being taught the fundamentals of architecture, OS and
compilers.  These things give the ability to figure out why a system is
built the way it is.  Something noone ever asks these days.

But with the advent of things like MFC and VB who needs to know the
fundamentals?  Like someone said earlier, it doesn't pay to know the
fundamentals.  But what happens when everyone who wrote those wonderful
libraries we all use retire?  What if they need to be upgraded or debugged?

Look at the fiasco with Y2K.  All those retired Cobol programmers making a 
killing on short-term contracts because noone who came after them
understands a damn thing about Cobol.  Because the companies decided that
it was profitable to keep the legacy system, but not to pay someone with
skill to maintain it.  After all, they'd never need to change it, would
they?

Well, I think you get the drift by now,
--Jonathan.


Jonathan Hart                | 
Director R & D               | If you are not the lead dog,
Plexxus Technologies, Inc.   | the scenery never changes.
jonathan at plexxustech.com     |