Before you think of being a do-gooder...

[Peter]

On Sun, 28 May 2006, Walter Dnes wrote:

> On Sat, May 27, 2006 at 10:56:40AM -0400, Evan Leibovitch wrote
>
>> What's pathetic is that IT design, support and maintenance isn't really
>> a profession, it isn't even up to the level of being a "trade". Of
>> course, many IT vendors like things this way because accountability
>> would expose them.

;-)

>  A couple of points...
>
>  1) Unlike bricklaying, or carpentry, or metalworking, etc, there isn't
> a century or two of publications and knowledge handed down from
> generation to generation.  C and Java are two of the "oldest" languages
> currently in major use for new development.  Stuff like Python, Ruby,
> PHP is almost brand new.  How many "centuries of practice" are there for
> these languages?

Python and Ruby (and Perl and Tcl/Tk and C and most other 'common' 
languages) predate Java by at least 10 years and before they became web 
scripting languages they spent some time in the hands of scientists and 
graduate students who took out some of the rougher edges, and many of 
the ugly bugs. Neither Java, nor Javascript had this polishing session, 
or the time. And it shows. Oh, and Php.

Peter

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