Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tektronix!reed!psu-cs!warren
From: warren@psu-cs.UUCP (Warren Harrison)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Re: Cynic's Guide to SE #6: Forthcoming Revolt
Message-ID: <1019@psu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 5 Oct 88 18:03:25 GMT
References: <3969@enea.se> <3146@hubcap.UUCP>
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Portland State University; Portland OR
Lines: 25


As they say, you should use the tool that is appropriate for the job. For a
little (<10K lines) program, I don't think you can beat the environment
something like Turbo C on a PC gives you with any mini or mainframe I've
ever worked with.  For larger systems of programs?  Not a chance.  In fact
many of the biggest names in PC software actually do their development on
a workstation or a mini, and then generate code for the target once its
running.  A good rule of thumb I've observed is that anytime a project can
be done by one or (maybe) two people, a PC is probably your best choice.

Since most programs written by students are under the 10K limit why not use
PCs?  Well, it's good to get used to working in an environment which supports
large software development (but still no reason to inflict vi on people),
even if you don't need it right now.

Hope my two cents worth have further (in)flammed the discussion.  It is an
important issue, and I don't believe that in order to develop large code
systems I have to work with development tools that suck eggs just to get
the ability to manage and integrate the work of a dozen programmers.
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warren Harrison                 CSNET: warren@pdx.edu
Department of Computer Science  UUCP:  {ucbvax,decvax}!tektronix!psu-cs!warren
Portland State University       Internet: warren%pdx.edu@relay.cs.net
Portland, OR 97207-0751