NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/alt/amateur/416

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-29 | 2.7 KB

Xref: sparky alt.amateur-comp:416 comp.lang.c:18948 comp.lang.c++:18479 comp.misc:4716
Newsgroups: alt.amateur-comp,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.misc
Path: sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU!maxtal
From: [e-mail] (John MAX Skaller)
Subject: Re: What is Object Oriented Programming? Is C doomed?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Nntp-Posting-Host: extro.ucc.su.oz.au
Organization: MAXTAL P/L C/- University Computing Centre, Sydney
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 03:52:57 GMT
Lines: 43

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (peter da silva) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John MAX Skaller) writes:
>> >Examples? When I have a lot of tedious coding, I generally write a
>> >program to write the program for me.
>
>>     Even with the best tools, say a DBMS, you still
>> have to type in the field names, lengths, valididty
>> conditions etc. After you'vr done this sort of thing 20
>> times before, there is no design to do, you know how to
>> do it, you just have to get stuck into it and do it.
>
>That's not programming any more. That's data entry.

    I agree. So almost all the 'stuff' I do as a programmer
is data entry. I find the time it takes to type in a program
a major obstacle to meeting deadlines (I cant type properly).

    Its sometimes difficult to explain that to get
that simple screen working required three days of typing.

>
>If the program the customer is paying for is small or random enough that
>a canned solution won't work, and a custom generator isn't cost-effective,
>then you're stuck. I'm not sure how you could get into a situation like
>that after the first couple of jobs: you did say this was stuff you'd done
>bunches of times before... then you should already have something close
>to the generator you need in your pocket.

    No, there are always just enough differences to make it
impractical to implement a solution. At least that was definitely
the case before I started using C++. Now at least I can
reduce some of the overhead with C++ facilities for reusability.

    As to how I got stuck in this situation: amoung the
reasons might be that the market in Australia in small enough
and the number of programmers large enough that there is
never enough work similar enough to do what you describe.

--
;----------------------------------------------------------------------
        JOHN (MAX) SKALLER,         [e-mail]
    Maxtal Pty Ltd, 6 MacKay St ASHFIELD, NSW 2131, AUSTRALIA
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