eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (10/25/89)
Humm, I was justing getting interested......sorry no time, have to 'u,'
but I thought I might offer one thought before leaving.
I saw the SJ Merc article. First, I think Gary Chapman was sort of
quoted out of context. I saw this article on the day the Hacker's
Conference opened it doors to the press, and I didn't get a chance to ask
Rory about his article (I let the source slip though my hands......).
Gee, talks about some of the advantages of living in Silicon Valley....
I think licensing has to be somewhat predicated on controlling something.
I saw this in a vague fashion because I am aware of how people slip thru
cracks in the medical profession. And because of this, I don't think we
will see the licensing of computer professionals for quite a while.
Computer professionals (software) are too valuable. I've seen too many
hardware companies fail because they never delivered. This is changing,
people are beginning to understand software better now, 1) because more
managers are experienced with programming, 2) people are a whole are trying
to understand software (due to video games, etc.), 3) the wide spread
use of personal computers even by non-computer professionals. Imagine
cowboys in the center of Nevada talking about modems.... (truth).
Our society can't and won't control personal computers. We can't control
distribution media, and we have a hard time even controlling communications
media. Yet it exists on very fragile footing. We can see it is nearly
impossible to control software.
The best thing that software engineering can do as a discipline is
1) make better tools, 2) propagate those tools to all corners of the market
[young, old, novice, professional, amateur, non-computer-types],
3) make people aware of the issues/problems (no silver bullets).
I do not think this is an issue of make the elite better. We have too few
elite (Knuths and Mills) and always will. Instead, everyone will have
some degree of "proficiency" like the oft used analogy with writing
and literacy: i.e., computers will become harder to make "friendlier," but
more people becoming computer knowledgeable [BF Skinner had something to
say about this once]. So work on 1), 2), 3).
Another gross generalization from
--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov
resident cynic at the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers:
"You trust the `reply' command with all those different mailers out there?"
"If my mail does not reach you, please accept my apology."
{ncar,decwrl,hplabs,uunet}!ames!eugene
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