From: Marin David Condic <condicma@bogon.pwfl.com>
Subject: Re: A question for my personal knowledge.
Date: 1999/05/11
Date: 1999-05-11T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <373841A7.7AB200BB@pwfl.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 37382B0C.A95B6745@bigfoot.com
Roy Grimm wrote:
> When one has dozens or hundreds of
> programmers/engineers/developers/whatever, the costs can add up
> quickly. Not only do you have to pay for the classes but you also have
> the costs of learning the new development environment (even if your old
> environment supports the new language, it has to have new ways of
> handling some language features so it is never 100% identical). Beyond
> that, there's the unseen costs of the true learning curve of the
> language. Sure, you can pick up the syntax reasonably quickly but
> you'll still take a few weeks or more of using that syntax to really
> learn the language. That is what's expensive.
>
...And let the language wars begin!...:-)
pragma Flame (On) ;
I hear this argument all the time - "Nobody wants to switch to language
X because training/education/infrastructure/whatever is too expensive."
This ends up absurd on the face of it. Stick "Java" in where "X" appears
above. Apparently people were willing to eat the costs - large or small
or whatever they really are - in order to get the perceived benefits of
the new language. This *must* be true or we'd all still be programming
in assembler.
I think it ends up coming down to this: "I find language X interesting.
Hence, I will acquire the resources and start developing in X." versus
"I hate language Y and someone is encouraging/forcing me to adopt it.
Hence, language Y will cost too much, take too long, introduce too many
risks, make it impossible for me to get qualified staff, blah, blah,
blah."
I hope this isn't looked at as any sort of attack. I realize lots of
people of good will and intelligence understand that there are costs
associated with switching over to a new language. I just get frustrated
with the notion that this is somehow an insurmountable barrier. It is
obviously *not* an insurmountable barrier the instant Programmer Pete or
Manager Mel decide they like a language and want to use it. It is done
*all*the*time* and apparently doesn't bankrupt a project or company or
there would *never* be any progress beyond machine code.
pragma Flame (Off) ;
Whew! Feels good to get that out of my system!
MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Real Time & Embedded Systems, Propulsion Systems Analysis
United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney, Large Military Engines
M/S 731-95, P.O.B. 109600, West Palm Beach, FL, 33410-9600
***To reply, remove "bogon" from the domain name.***
Visit my web page at: http://www.flipag.net/mcondic
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1999-05-11 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 58+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1999-05-10 0:00 A question for my personal knowledge Siamak Kaveh
1999-05-10 0:00 ` Dan Nagle
1999-05-10 0:00 ` Roy Grimm
1999-05-11 0:00 ` Pascal Obry
1999-05-11 0:00 ` Roy Grimm
1999-05-11 0:00 ` Marin David Condic [this message]
1999-05-11 0:00 ` Roy Grimm
1999-05-11 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1999-05-11 0:00 ` Roy Grimm
1999-05-12 0:00 ` Roger Racine
1999-05-12 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-05-17 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-05-18 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-05-18 0:00 ` bglbv
1999-05-18 0:00 ` William B. Clodius
1999-05-17 0:00 ` Charlie McCutcheon
1999-05-17 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-05-17 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-05-17 0:00 ` Chris
1999-05-17 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-05-11 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1999-05-11 0:00 ` Roy Grimm
1999-05-12 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1999-05-11 0:00 ` dennison
1999-05-13 0:00 ` Mike Yoder
1999-05-13 0:00 ` Mike
1999-05-13 0:00 ` Martin C. Carlisle
1999-05-14 0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
1999-05-13 0:00 ` Mike
1999-05-13 0:00 ` David Starner
1999-05-18 0:00 ` Georg Bauhaus
1999-05-13 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1999-05-14 0:00 ` Florian Weimer
1999-05-14 0:00 ` Steve
1999-05-15 0:00 ` Florian Weimer
1999-05-15 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-05-14 0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
1999-05-15 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-05-18 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-05-18 0:00 ` Hyman Rosen
1999-05-18 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-05-18 0:00 ` Hyman Rosen
1999-05-19 0:00 ` Richard D Riehle
1999-05-10 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-05-10 0:00 ` Paul Whittington
1999-05-10 0:00 ` Marin David Condic
1999-05-10 0:00 ` Sam
1999-05-10 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-05-10 0:00 ` Keith Thompson
1999-05-12 0:00 ` Charlie McCutcheon
1999-05-12 0:00 ` Werner Pachler
1999-05-17 0:00 ` Charlie McCutcheon
1999-05-17 0:00 ` bglbv
1999-05-17 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-05-18 0:00 ` bglbv
1999-05-19 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1999-05-11 0:00 ` Jean-Pierre Rosen
1999-05-11 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
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