Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!xanth!ames!pacbell!rtech!linda From: linda@rtech.rtech.com (Linda Mundy) Newsgroups: comp.sw.components Subject: Re: Schedule and budget are secondary Message-ID: <3820@rtech.rtech.com> Date: 13 Oct 89 23:19:46 GMT References: <16168@vail.ICO.ISC.COM> <6693@hubcap.clemson.edu> <16187@vail.ICO.ISC.COM> <3807@rtech.rtech.com> Reply-To: linda@rtech.UUCP (Linda Mundy) Organization: Relational Technology Inc, Alameda CA Lines: 45 In article ted@nmsu.edu (Ted Dunning) writes: > >In article <3807@rtech.rtech.com> linda@rtech.rtech.com (Linda Mundy) writes: > > In article <16187@vail.ICO.ISC.COM> rcd@ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn) writes: > ... > I personally think that any new, just-out-of-school programmer > should do maintenance work for awhile (assuming, of course, > that the company already has a product!) > ... >why wait until then? one of the most important things that any >course in software engineering should have students do is work on >a large system. for that matter, so should _all_ but the most >basic courses. if you have compiler class, make them work on a >real compiler, in a course on semantics, make them work with the >semantics of a real language. > I certainly agree that could be a very useful approach; however, few if any university CS programs operate that way. > ... > But the most important point: don't diminish people because of > their relative positions. It can't do any good -- in fact, it > is exactly such attitudes that lead to "bored, second-string" > employees -- wherever they happen to be in the organizational > structure. > ... >i am not sure that dick was trying to diminish people asmuch as >he was just observing that the programmers who do maintenance >and typically _are_ bored, typically _are_ second-string. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > I don't think he was *trying* to diminish people, yet that phrase "second-string maintenance programmers" sure sounds like a stereotype to me. And your comments above perpetuate that stereotype. >-- >ted@nmsu.edu > Dem Dichter war so wohl daheime > In Schildas teurem Eichenhain! > Dort wob ich meine zarten Reime > Aus Veilchenduft und Mondenschein -- "Who are you to tell me to question authority?" Linda Mundy {ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!linda