Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!swbatl!texbell!sugar!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Non-professional programmers (was: Which language to teach first?)
Message-ID: <5868@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 24 Aug 89 17:56:31 GMT
References: <13380@megaron.arizona.edu>
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 20

In article <13380@megaron.arizona.edu>, gudeman@arizona.edu (David Gudeman) writes:
> Would you expect an electrical
> engineer to design a car?  A mechanical engineer to design a microchip?
> If not, then don't expect either one to design software either.

What about problems that are well understood by the mechanical engineer
and poorly understood by the software engineer? While the mechanical
engineer's program is likely to be less efficient, it's more likely to
actually produce the correct result. Which is, after all, the bottom line.

Even if you have the Mech E working with a CS guy to develop the program,
the Mech E guy is still going to have to know enough about programming to
provide realistic specifications and guidance. Either he's going to have
to have some formal training in CS or he's going to have to learn on the
job. You seem to have a preference for formal training...
-- 
Peter da Silva, *NIX support guy @ Ferranti International Controls Corporation.
Biz: peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Fun: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com. `-_-'
"export ENV='${Envfile[(_$-=1)+(_=0)-(_$-!=_${-%%*i*})]}'" -- Tom Neff     'U`
"I didn't know that ksh had a built-in APL interpreter!" -- Steve J. Friedl