Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!linus!philabs!ttidca!hollombe
From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Who builds tools?
Message-ID: <2405@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Date: 27 Apr 88 17:36:26 GMT
References: <321@uwslh.UUCP> <40335UH2@PSUVM>
Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath)
Organization: The Cat Factory
Lines: 30

In article <40335UH2@PSUVM> UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes:
+... One way to do that is to give
+every a surgeon a ToolSmith, who builds tools for the surgeon so that
+he doesn't have to build them hirself.
+
+... maybe every project ought to have someone
+who ...
+... IS good with tools and tool building.  ...
+... whose *specialty* is awk, emacs,
+shell, yacc, etc etc etc.

There's tools and tools.  My semi-official position right now is tool
builder for our QA department.  I build and maintain programs used to
stress test and regression test ATMs, among other things.  These have to
run in real time (simulating a person using the ATM) and are written
entirely in C.  My office mate is our group's nominal shell expert and
writes the scripts used to start up the ATMs and invoke my tools.

In previous jobs I've written test tools in FORTRAN for Space Shuttle
displays, also running in real time. (Hmmm ...  I seem to have done a lot
of this, now I think of it (-: ).

The Unix toolkit is a marvelous and useful thing, but restricting yourself
to it is much too narrow a definition of "tools".

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@TTI.COM)   Illegitimati Nil
Citicorp(+)TTI                                           Carborundum
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (213) 452-9191, x2483
Santa Monica, CA  90405 {csun|philabs|psivax|trwrb}!ttidca!hollombe