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- Path: netcom.com!doumakes
- From: doumakes@netcom.com (Don Doumakes)
- Subject: Re: Can we do programming without seeing the end user?
- Message-ID: <doumakesDoqpx1.6vL@netcom.com>
- Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
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- References: <BYtKnOggyTxQ071yn@oslonett.no> <4ivp84$o0n@dfw-ixnews5.ix.netcom.com>
- Date: Sat, 23 Mar 1996 21:48:08 GMT
- Sender: doumakes@netcom11.netcom.com
-
- ANDREW GRYGUS <aax@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
-
- > If the programmer, or head programmer of a group, has not lived with
- > the client's job long enought to do it, and do it well - s/he has no
- > business writing any code for that job.
- >
- > Unfortunately, this is a very rare exception, as most programmers have
- > no interest outside their field. It shows, guys, it really shows.
-
- Yes, it does show. But I think the statement in your first paragraph
- above, is overstated.
-
- I work as a programmer, but used to work as a nurse. I would love the
- chance to write some software for nurses, because I know I could produce
- something superior to what's presently available. (That particular
- field is a very small pond indeed; most nurses do all their
- documentation and planning in longhand, with a pen.) There isn't a
- substitute for first-hand experience.
-
- On the other hand, there are things that new customers are thinking up
- that NO ONE has ever done before, let alone computer programmers. The
- only way to get their work done for them before the end of the century,
- is to do the difficult work of communicating about the job, until the
- spec is complete. Nothing (with the possible exception of Windows)
- undermines my ability to get the job done, more than an incomplete spec.
-
- --
- Don Doumakes Freelance C, C++, VB programmer
- doumakes@netcom.com Ready to take on your project
- http://www.novia.net/~doumakes Offsite only
-