<quote who="Rick Welykochy">

> I've always pondered where to draw the line between sys admin and
> programmer /analyst.

Wherever you draw it, draw if very firmly. Sysadmins should not write code,
coders should not administer systems. Heinous crimes are committed when the
streams are crossed!

> Many sys admins I work with can whip up shell scripts and are whizzes at
> handling utilities and such in the shell. But often they are not adept at
> designing software systems and implementing them. No offense, admins, but
> it is a different discipline.

Absolutely. But the inverse is also true. :-)

> Which raises the question: does it require a programmer to handle and
> correctly execute complex command-line programs like convert, etc.  as
> found in Imagemagick?

Naw, those are pretty straightforward if you have the mind-set for them. I'd
venture that ImageMagick is not exactly the most useable suite of command
line tools. :-)

> As an aside, my brain begins weeping when I have to do something novel
> with iptables (another command-line monster) but I don't consider that a
> programming job. I get the impression many Linux admins can configure
> iptables in the dark without a keyboard and both hands preoccupied with
> beer and pizza.

iptables is firewall assembly language. There are other things that provide
the equivalent of portable sugary description (equivalent to C in the code
ecosystem), concise object-oriented approaches (equivalent to languages such
as Python), and even visual approaches (logo for firewall designers!).

- Jeff

-- 
GUADEC 2008: Istanbul, Turkey                         http://www.guadec.org/
 
    "GNOME, launched specifically to counter a threat to our freedom, is
       the free software project par excellence." - Richard Stallman
-- 
SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html

Reply via email to