RE: The Future

Holiday Inn Express Dennis, Express! You obviously didn't stay in one
last night or you would have known 8-)

Anywho, coming from someone who is not defeated ..... ME, I would tend to
agree with John on the most contentious point.... (remember, this is a
generalization, there are far more people programming in RPG for non
vendor companies than there are for vendor companies). This probably
doesn't apply to people programming RPG in a vendor shop, this applies
more to those programming in standard shops out in the field. I would
agree that most RPGers don't have the mentality of a "software developer"
(each person has their own impression of this term). But I think that
this isn't because they "don't care", or as I've seen posted before
"lazy". Sometimes that is the case, but that is everywhere with any job.
I think this goes a long way to the fact that most RPGers writing business
code are in fact taking Specs and creating programs as management sees
fit. This isn't the fault of the programmer, they're doing their job.
Over time however you get worn down by decision makers saying... "No, do
it my way!" and after a while they can get so far behind the times that
they give up and just try to stick it out until retirement. They are
defeated.

Yet others I think are so busy doing their jobs, and possibly really
enjoying what they do, seeing people use the programs they made even if
they were someone else's idea. The person with the idea(request) couldn't
do it, so the programmer gets a sense of satisfaction that they did their
part. Eventually at some point they get curious about some new shiny buzz
worthy thing and wonder what its all about. They do some research and
realize that they don't have the resources in their current job to check
it out or learn about it, but realize that it is valuable. This seems to
be where Kelly is at.

Look, some people want to come to work, do their job, get their check and
go home. They don't want to take work home with them, and don't really
care to use a computer at home much since they use one all day long. I
would agree that these people don't really fit the "software developer"
architype. In my mind a "software developer" loves technology and wants
to do cool new things to make advances in technology itself, not just
creating useful things for thier customers. Its about pushing the
envelope and a passion for what you do.

The fact that John just flat out suggests that Kelly is "too late to the
game" for wanting to learn new programming languages and techniques is
short sighted. And telling her to change careers all together, to me,
sounds very insulting and disrespectful. Kelly, keep your chin up, once
you start learning another language or two you will realize that learning
more languages isn't very hard. The syntax from one to another can
sometimes be very similar and the same with techniques. In my first 3
years on the job I learned RPGLE, CL(if you consider it a language),
HTML/CSS, Javascript, Java, and PHP. Of course, you stay sharpest in the
ones you use most, but once you learn the language and complete a fairly
significant project with it you'll always remember the nuances you learned
and will be able to get back on that bike when needed.


Thanks
Bryce Martin
Programmer/Analyst I
570-546-4777



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RE: The Future







DrFranken wrote:

I'm not a Doctor, but I play one on the computer.

I heard he also spent the night in a Holiday Inn at some point in his
past.

Dennis Lovelady
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dennislovelady
--
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good
example."
-- Mark Twain