Re: chief programmer team organizations was (c++ vs ada results)

[jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter)]

>The concept of an "elite" design team dictating system architectures
>to a "serf" class of coders is offensive to all but the most uncreative of
>Ada programmers.

I may be misunderstanding your post, but from what I'm able to glean from
it, you don't think hierarchical decision making works on a project, and
that the alternative is a sort of enlightened egalitarianism. If so, I
disagree, based on my own experience. One does not expect bricklayers,
welders, pipefitters, etc to also design a skyscraper, any more than one
expects an architect to wire the offices. This always seems to get cast
into a class-vs-class struggle, when in fact it is a simple matter of
specialization and expertise. Not everyone can be an architect. On the
other hand, not everyone can be a bricklayer (believe me--it's harder
than it looks!). You reflect your own bias in the above quote, where
the subtext appears to be that coding is an uncreative pursuit. Therein
lies the error--coding is no more or less creative, no more or less
rewarding, than architecting, plumbing, needlepoint, or any other human
pursuit.

If everyone tries to design the architecture, the result is not an
architecture at all--it is a camel. Design by committee is generally
regarded as a bad idea, yet you seem to be advocating a really big
committee in your post. Or am I just confused?
-- 
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