nabiel@erix.UUCP (Nabiel Elshiewy) (05/24/84)
Sending this article on net.general does not mean that it belongs there. The reason is that I don't really know which group is interested in the subject. I hope for response and appreciate guiding me to the right group. In ACM Software Engineering Notes, volume 6, number 2, April 1981, a note titled *** PROFESSIONALIZING PROGRAMMING *** was written there signed by Philip Miller. The note is reprinted here (with the hope that I am not violating any copy right regulations): > " I recently came across a Short Communication ("Why You > Should Not Time-Share", Software Practice and Experience, > April 79) explaining some of the fallacies of developing > software interactively. Niklaus Wirth has also written about > the sloppiness that can result from being on-line. > > Though a good interactive computing environment would seem to > be the best way to develop software, how do we keep > programmers from falling into extended periods of "trial- > and-error" debugging? Dijkstra once wrote that programs > should be composed to correctness, not debugged into > correctness. I am interested in opening a dialogue on this > topic: How do we make professional programmers out of the > "terminal jockeys"? Peter G. Neumann, SEN's editor, comments the note by the following statement: > If you give a slob programmer more powerful tools, he will > most likely demonstrate that he is more of a slob than anyone > previously realized. Perhaps this letter should be captioned > Horsing around with Programs: A Note that Rides the Jockeys. I share Miller his interest and I think that the subject is still interesting after three years from publication. I also believe that the right place for such dialogue is on the net. Most of us are PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMMERS. Nabiel Elshiewy, {phillabs, decvax} mcvax!enea!erix!nabiel