Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihu1h.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!ihu1h!steffen From: steffen@ihu1h.UUCP (Joe Steffen) Newsgroups: net.lang Subject: Re: Professionalizing Programmers, Going Off-line Message-ID: <245@ihu1h.UUCP> Date: Wed, 6-Jun-84 09:59:54 EDT Article-I.D.: ihu1h.245 Posted: Wed Jun 6 09:59:54 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 7-Jun-84 07:47:48 EDT References: <1044@vax2.fluke.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 17 If you are homesick for the bad old days, why stop with keypunching? Why not go back to entering programs via front panel switches? This "Lets make it real hard to program so we do it right the first time." attitude really irritates me. I get a mental image of programmers sitting at terminals in a Roman galley with slavedrivers whipping those programmers that make a mistake, ala the movie Ben Hur. Where does this mistaken idea come from? I have programmed via switches, plug board, keypunch, paper terminal, screen terminal, and bit-mapped terminal. My programs have been of the same quality regardless of input device, but the time it takes to write and debug a program is much smaller with the advanced input devices. -- Joe Steffen, AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL, (312) 979-5381