pro and hobbyist --- a distinction without merit

[Dan Shafer]

John.....

You may find the distinction unhelpful but a lot of us find it useful, not
just in this community but throughout the world of software development.

I don't use the word "hobbyist" because I think that narrows the space too
much. I coined the term "Inventive User" several years ago to describe this
type of user. There are clear and important differences between professional
programmers and inventive users and none of them relates to your response to
the distinction.

Check out http://www.revolutionpros.com and click on the "Views" link to
read a detailed report I wrote on this subject a few years ago for a client
and which I think applies quite clearly to RunRev in its present situation.

None of this is intended to be "disparaging" which is one of the reasons I
don't call those who are not full-time professional programmers "hobbyists"
or even "amateurs."

On 12/1/05, John Vokey <vokey at uleth.ca> wrote:
>
> This distinction still irks me.  I have never had the need to compile
> any of my stacks, hypercard, metacard, or RR.  But as I have written
> thousands of them, and use them daily in my lab, I would count myself
> as a ``pro'' user, not a ``hobbyist''.  However, just because a
> DreamCard-like model fits my needs doesn't mean that I don't need the
> increasingly-many add-ons that come only with the ``pro'' version.
> Hence, if a distinction needs to be made, stick to the one RR
> sensibly chose: DreamCard for those who don't need to produce stand-
> alone apps, and RR for those who do.  The engine, add-ons, plug-ins,
> cross-platform use, etc. should otherwise be the same for both.  And
> no one needs to be disparaged in the process.
>
>
>


--
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Dan Shafer, Information Product Consultant and Author
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