Ed Gould wrote: <begin extract> I suspect COBOL programmers want to lean how to basically code COBOL programs and how to debug them PERIOD </end extract>
I instead suspect that EG has described what the managers of these COBOL programmers want them to learn. G. H. Hardy wrote that 1) intellectual curiosity, a desire to know how things work, 2) craftsmanship, the need to do the best job one knows how to do, and 3) a desire for recognition, even fame, are sine quibus non for success at any intellectual task. Managers who employ programmers who lack these three characteristics get the mediocrity they deserve. It is already clear that in the near-term future almost all real programming will be done by hardware vendors, ISVs, and hobbyists; and this is as well. Mediocrity as a desideratum is a very curious notion. When, long ago, my wife and I sought an obstetrician to deliver our children we did not set out to find a minimally adequate one. Or again, when recently I needed legal advice I did not seek out a lawyer who was not overqualified. It is hard to resist the conclusion that these managers, who are not themselves programmers, have, with no understanding of the 'skill set' that programmers need, taken refuge yet again in crackpot realism. Production lines, particularly those that are highly automated, can be managed. Programming projects must be led. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
