From: Nick Keighley on
On 16 Feb, 20:25, Branimir Maksimovic <bm...(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> Richard Heathfield wrote:
> > Nick Keighley wrote:

> >> try dictating hex patches down a phone line.

the phone line wasn't good. As well as the Alpha, Bravo, Charlie stuff
it seemed to help if you spoke like a boxing referee "one-a, two-a,
three-a"


> > Done that. Well, kind of. I once had to dictate assembly language
> > instructions down a phone line to a non-techie (broker), for him to type
> > into DEBUG, and then assemble and run. Fortunately, the program was very
> > short. (Although email and the Web both existed at the time, neither of
> > us had access to either of them, and the broker needed an instant
> > solution, so I couldn't just snail him a diskette.)
>
> > It wasn't easy!
>
> That guy was pretty techie, because it contradicts my experience.
> For example one guy was not capable to just find and change
> parameter in config file, and I mailed him that.
> Problem was that config file had about 1000 lines and
> he didn;t knew how to apply case insensitive search.
> In my experince lot of them don;t even know what is text
> editor let alone debugger. So that guy was techie for, sure....

my mum had problems with instructions dictated by some some sort of
technical support because her interpretation of the terms "forward-
slash" and "backward-slash" were the exact opposite of most
(technical) people's

From: Nick Keighley on
On 17 Feb, 07:43, Branimir Maksimovic <bm...(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> Lew wrote:
> > Richard Heathfield wrote:

<snip>

> > People aren't usually stupid, and if they're highly motivated to solve a
> > [problem]
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~­~~~
> I think that this is most important factor. Customer support where
> I live is not very well motivated...

<snip>

> Other guy that claimed C/C++ expert (worked in Portugal for
> military) asked did C have function pointer. When we
> showed question from Stroustrups book (duffs device),
> he dind;t know what is all about.

well it looks pretty weird the first time you see it. "can you really
do /that/ in a switch?!" was my reaction. Is Duff's device important?


> No one of fifty computer
> scientist masters dind't recognized duffs device (even guy which
> was borne in 63').

'63 was a good year? Programmers are like wines?


> So I concluded if I see university diploma "master of computer scinece"
> that's sure sine of ignorance or something similar in country where I live.

I didn't learn Duff's device at university.


> One guy who claimed wrote sw for robots dind;t knew how much is 2^32 ;)

nor do I if you want the exact value. I'd look it up if I needed it (I
just use hex!)

> I think that are very few people who know ho to program computers these
> days.

"The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound.
Children no longer mind their parents ... and it is evident that the
end of
the world is fast approaching."
-- Assyrian stone tablet, c.2800bc


> Blame educations system, because "C is not safe" and
> "stay away from assembler". Soon no one will know how to program,
> and older guys will earn lot of money , but there would be not enough of
> them...

sounds good to me!

From: Branimir Maksimovic on
Nick Keighley wrote:
>
>> Other guy that claimed C/C++ expert (worked in Portugal for
>> military) asked did C have function pointer. When we
>> showed question from Stroustrups book (duffs device),
>> he dind;t know what is all about.
>
> well it looks pretty weird the first time you see it. "can you really
> do /that/ in a switch?!" was my reaction. Is Duff's device important?

Well , not, but that would mean they have read Stroustrups book.
Actually, these days all CV's are very impressive...
So imagine how they responded to simple C++ language related
questions...

>
>
>> No one of fifty computer
>> scientist masters dind't recognized duffs device (even guy which
>> was borne in 63').
>
> '63 was a good year? Programmers are like wines?

Hm , don;t know.
Actually we wanted someone who can work without 6 months of training.

>
>
>> So I concluded if I see university diploma "master of computer scinece"
>> that's sure sine of ignorance or something similar in country where I live.
>
> I didn't learn Duff's device at university.

That is the point.
>
>
>> One guy who claimed wrote sw for robots dind;t knew how much is 2^32 ;)
>
> nor do I if you want the exact value. I'd look it up if I needed it (I
> just use hex!)
Well 4gb answer should be enough, I don;t know exact figure either ;)

>
>> I think that are very few people who know ho to program computers these
>> days.
>
> "The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound.
> Children no longer mind their parents ... and it is evident that the
> end of
> the world is fast approaching."
> -- Assyrian stone tablet, c.2800bc

What is the point?
Average Joe makes memory leaks in Java no problem...
these days...
Software gets more bloated, more and more bugs, ...

>
>
>> Blame educations system, because "C is not safe" and
>> "stay away from assembler". Soon no one will know how to program,
>> and older guys will earn lot of money , but there would be not enough of
>> them...
>
> sounds good to me!

Well, actually if you spend enough time lurking at usenet, you can
learn enough ;)
I don;t have objective picture since my perspective is
from this country where sw industry is practically non existent (btw).

Greets
From: Nick Keighley on
On 17 Feb, 08:50, Branimir Maksimovic <bm...(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> Nick Keighley wrote:

<snip>

> >> I think that are very few people who know ho to program computers these
> >> days.
>
> > "The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound.
> > Children no longer mind their parents ... and it is evident that the
> > end of the world is fast approaching."
> >                 -- Assyrian stone tablet, c.2800bc
>
> What is the point?
> Average Joe makes memory leaks in Java no problem...
> these days...
> Software gets more bloated, more and more bugs, ...

I was noting the fixed point in the human experience. Things are
degenerating and were always better in the past.

<snip>
From: Branimir Maksimovic on
Nick Keighley wrote:
>
> I was noting the fixed point in the human experience. Things are
> degenerating and were always better in the past.
>
> <snip>

To be honest things were always simpler in the past.

Greets