ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould) (03/14/86)
In article <212@ttidcc.UUCP> hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) writes: > [comments about firing a programmer who was about to get a CS degree] > >Example: >He was assigned to write a Pascal routine that would clear a VT100 screen >and draw a numbered grid in the upper right corner. Simple enough. When >he was finished, his code went on for 2 1/2 pages of hard coded escape >sequences. I politely suggested that he write a move cursor routine, just >in case we had to switch terminals. He grudgingly agreed and the resulting >code covered another page and a half. All this took about 2 days. > >At that point, I decided to write the routines myself, just to see if all >that fuss was necessary. The move cursor routine took six lines, three of >which were error handling he hadn't bothered with (two of the remaining >three were Pascal overhead). The draw grid routine took another half dozen >lines -- one for loop. Combined, they took well under an hour to design >and code. > > [comment about the disservice that graders are doing to the profession > by giving this guy A's] I see two different issues here. The first is programmer productivity. A number that I first found exageratted, but that I now believe, is that the difference in productivity between a novice programmer and an experienced one is a factor of 60. You're describing something like a factor of 16. The other issue is the problem of teaching programming. This has long been a pet peeve of mine; especially having viewed, and to some extent experienced, the introductory programming courses at UC (that's the University of California. It's campus is in Berkeley; those other campuses are all latecomers. Yes, I know I'm a snob). To a large extent, they teach language syntax and semantics, not problem solving. The programmer described above managed to write down a solution that worked, in the appropriate language. He didn't solve the problem, however, especially not the "portability" part. So he can write programs but not solve problems. There used to be a job that did that function, but it has lost favor. It was called "coding." -- Ed Gould mt Xinu, 2910 Seventh St., Berkeley, CA 94710 USA {ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed +1 415 644 0146 "A man of quality is not threatened by a woman of equality."