Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!littlei!omepd!psu-cs!warren
From: warren@psu-cs.UUCP (Warren Harrison)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: American Programmer
Message-ID: <555@psu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 18 Mar 88 03:17:34 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Portland State University; Portland OR
Lines: 42

The recent discussion in this newsgroup regarding the poor quality of
software engineering in the US today is quite interesting.  Before we
end up gnashing all our teeth into stubs, I'd like to point out that
hardly an automaker has yet to have at least one model recalled due
to faulty brakes or whatever. This will no doubt become more and more
common as mechanical systems begin to become more and more complex
(I can't think of a single mechanical system today which is anywhere
close to as complex as even a moderate sized compiler, much less an
operating system or C3 system).

Perhaps what is most amusing is the universal agreement that "management"
(whoever they are) is to blame.  The general feeling seems to be that if
only managers would let us programmers have our head, everything would be
right with the world.  In the first issue of American Programmer (a new
magazine that Ed Yourdon is publishing out of his Mac II and office in NY)
this issue is dealt with as frankly as I have seen so far.  Yourdon points
out that the average programmer isn't all that great anyway, and should
share at least part of the blame.  This is no doubt due to the great influx
of people who wanted secure, high paying jobs in the early 1980's, but who
really weren't cut out for writing software (I must have taught 500 of them
from 1979 to 1984, at various universities from Missouri to Oregon).

While I agree that management must share the blame on the general state of
things, we (ie, programmers) have to bear some of the burden.  Almost every
company I have seen represented in this newsgroup has had at least one major
fiasco (publicized or not).

There is lots more to do with this topic in the American Programmer.
For more info about Ed's new venture, write him at:

161 West 86th Street
New York City, NY  10024-3434

this new magazine is by far one of the best I've yet to see, and I suggest
everyone interested in the state of the American Programmer look into it!
(I am not affiliated in any way with Ed Yourdon, Yourdon Press, Children's
Software [the ones that publish AP], or anything else east of the Oregon-Idaho
state line).

Warren Harrison
The University of Portland
Portland, OR 97203-5798