Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.object
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!pipex!uunet!rcm!rmartin
From: rmartin@rcmcon.com (Robert Martin)
Subject: Re: C++ Productivity
Keywords: C++ Productivity
References: <1995Jan23.193745.7044@boole.com> <jim.fleming.84.00133AB6@bytes.com> <1995Jan25.201226.28856@rcmcon.com> <jim.fleming.75.0003AF13@bytes.com> <3gls1u$p2l@osfa.aber.ac.uk>
Organization: R. C. M. Consulting Inc. 708-918-1004
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 18:40:49 GMT
Message-ID: <1995Feb1.184049.16332@rcmcon.com>
Lines: 30
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.c++:110378 comp.lang.smalltalk:20177 comp.object:25928

acw93@aber.ac.uk writes:

>I had the good fortune to be present when a friend of mine was
>running into trouble with a MS Visual C++, and a chap who I didn't
>know too well came over to lend him a hand.  I sat back and watched
>with amusement as the global variables and global functions started
>'pouring out'. He even had a nifty trick he could do with malloc()
>to show us! (No, he didn't understand the compiler error messages.)

>OK. So how has our helpful friend persuaded a company to take him
>on as a MS Visual C++ programmer? Because he is a competant C
>programmer! He didn't know what a class was when I last spoke
>to him either, but to be fair he has only been in the job for
>a few weeks. 

I don't doubt the veracity of this story.  I also don't doubt that a
sizeable percentage of the engineers who claim to know C++ have a very
poor understanding of OOD.  What I am struggling to uncover here, is
the point.  

Ignorance of claimants is not a weakness of the language, nor is it a
weakness of the paradigm.  That the claimants get hired is a weakness
of the engineering support that is lent to the hiring process.  


-- 
Robert Martin       | Design Consulting   | Training courses offered:
Object Mentor Assoc.| rmartin@rcmcon.com  |   Object Oriented Analysis
2080 Cranbrook Rd.  | Tel: (708) 918-1004 |   Object Oriented Design
Green Oaks IL 60048 | Fax: (708) 918-1023 |   C++
