[long] Re: Legal traps in open source

[Paul Bryan]

On Wednesday 30 October 2002 14:55, Sam Couter wrote:
> Paul Bryan <pa_bryan at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> > I'd rather put my skilled workers onto handling dynamic memory stuff ,
> > low level coding etc. (C/C++) and let the monkeys rely on niceties like
> > garbage[1] collection (Java) personally :-P
>
> It's possible to leak memory or use incorrect referenes in Java too, you
> know. In fact, I'm neck-deep in the worst Java code I've ever seen right
> now, and it's worse than most C code I've seen.

Of course you can write worse code in Java than someone else may write in 
C/C++. That's dependant on the coder and not the language.

>
> Anyway, I think you're confusing technical skills with engineering and
> architecting skills.
>
> Software Engineers don't get taught how to code any more than a Civil
> Engineer gets taught how to pour concrete or an architect is taught how
> to use a hammer.
>
> The ability to code doesn't automatically include the ability to design,
> and vice-versa.
>
> I'd rather have a Software Engineer design a system and manage the
> project, and have code monkeys build it according to the Engineer's
> instructions and specifications. A different group of code monkeys
> should build test harnesses and try to break the first group's software.

Without trying to harp on too much (a little is always good for soul), I was 
just trying to point out that if we're making the distinction solely on 
programming languages, and not the actual complexity of tasks, C/C++ would 
tend to require more skilled software engineers than Java. 

I've found it generally easier to write in Java than C/C++. Of course there's 
always a trade off (eg. no device drivers in Java, although someone will 
probably come up with some case where that's been done, and laugh heartily at 
my naivety).

The division was made on tools (C/C++, Perl, makefiles etc.) and not on 
tasks/roles. Perhaps thats the flaw in this little mini thread and we should 
settle on it being a bad analogy. You're analogy of roles (engineer vs. 
concreter) is much better than that of tools (C/C++ vs. Java).

Paul.