Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!paul.rutgers.edu!yes.rutgers.edu!emuleomo
From: emuleomo@yes.rutgers.edu (Emuleomo)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: software engineers
Message-ID: <May.6.16.52.43.1989.2510@yes.rutgers.edu>
Date: 6 May 89 20:52:46 GMT
References: <854@odyssey.ATT.COM>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 19


> Real programmers spend 90% of their time debugging.  Computer science
> curricula ignore debugging, perhaps because it can never be reduced
> to a theory.  But debugging skills are what I would look for *first.*
> (By the way, I am using "software engineer" as synonymous with "programmer."
> Separating design from implementation is usually a mistake; ask the DoD.)

I must say that debugging skills, although important, are NOT AS IMPORTANT AS
GOOD **SOFTWARE DESIGN** skills.
In general, the amount of time required to debug a program, is INVERSELY 
PROPORTIONAL to the amount of time spent on the drawing board designing the 
program properly.
Have you ever seen a civil engineer debugging a bridge after it has been built?
Give me a disciplined designer anyday.  Debugging is usually the result of
haphazard work.

-- Emuleomo O.O.

** Writing good, clean code is pure MAGIC. That's why it's so hard to do! **