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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!sobeco!alawrenc
- From: alawrenc@sobeco.com (a.lawrence)
- Subject: Re: How many people program?
- Reply-To: alawrenc@sobeco.com
- Organization: Lawrence & Assc.
- Distribution: usa
- Date: Sat, 5 Sep 92 10:37:07 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Sep5.103707.23093@sobeco.com>
- References: <2dwy14c@rpi.edu>
- Lines: 42
-
- In <2dwy14c@rpi.edu> cougar@acm.rpi.edu (Erik Collin) writes:
-
-
- >A friend and I were chatting and the question of how many people
- >that own PCs do any of their own programming? This question could
- >be answered in a number of ways depending on what you consider
- >"programming". In this case lets define programming as the use of
- >a language such as BASIC, Pascal, C, COBOL, Lisp and the like. Things
- >such as DBase don't count. There is also the question of just who we
- >want to include in our group of users. Should people like secretaries
- >who use a PC to do word processing and spread sheets be counted? Should
- >people that are requiered to program (like students) be counted?
- >I dunno...
-
- I wouldn't count out dBase if I were you. Some organizations have paid me
- very good money to write programs for them in dBase (in the thousands of
- dollars).
-
- What about macro writing for applications like Lotus, Excel, Word Perfect
- or MS-Word. Sure most user's just record a few keystokes, but I have
- also seen a $50,000 package written entirely in Lotus Macros.
-
- >Lets do this: What percentage people that buy a PC of any type for home
- >use end up writing their own programs in one of the above mentioned
- >languages? And, what percentage use a language other than BASIC?
-
- >My guesses (I really have nothing to base this on):
- > all languages: 20%
- > all languages excluding BASIC: 10%
-
- >Your guess? Comments? Flames?
-
- My guess would be that less than 2% of the people who buy a PC type
- computer for home use do any kind of programming more complicated than
- recording a few keystrokes or writing a very simple batch file. Most
- cann't go beyond the menu system setup by the computer store or a friend.
-
- --
- If any given program runs correctly, it is obsolete.
- =========================================================================
- Andrew Lawrence, Informaticien Conseil | alawrenc@sobeco.com
- 3605 St-Urbain, #1605 | uunet!sobeco!alawrenc
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