Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!ukma!dftsrv!mimsy!tove.cs.umd.edu!cml From: cml@tove.cs.umd.edu (Christopher Lott) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: education (was: Re: bridge building) Message-ID: <33506@mimsy.umd.edu> Date: 25 Apr 91 12:38:32 GMT References: <33407@mimsy.umd.edu> Sender: news@mimsy.umd.edu Reply-To: cml@tove.cs.umd.edu (Christopher Lott) Distribution: na Organization: The University of Maryland Dept of Computer Science Lines: 32 In article jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) quotes me: Either they suffer from NIH syndrome or are simply ill informed. What can be done to reach the ill-informed practictioner? and answers: >Large caliber handguns come to mind... Well, ok fella, I know you're just making a joke. ha ha. But I claim that this is the KEY, absolutely VITAL to solving many of the problem of software. Education and training can help so may programmers, coders, designers, and yes, s/w engineers (drat title inflation!) do their jobs better. It's not that they should sign up for the $2000/week education classes, but starting with perhaps a IEEE tutorial manual would be terrific! Maybe take a course at the local college in software engineering, if there is one. Read some papers, books, etc. Read comp.softare-eng for leads. Time, as always, is the constraint. But (to quote someone else) sometimes you have to stop fighting fires long enough to turn off the gas. Getting the word out about tools, techniques, and process improvement is difficult, and I for one do not joke about its importance. People have to want to learn about this stuff before it will be learned. How does one convince the average practitioner that s/he is doing a below-par job and can improve? Without firing him/her, etc., etc. chris... -- Christopher Lott \/ Dept of Comp Sci, Univ of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 cml@cs.umd.edu /\ 4122 AV Williams Bldg 301 405-2721