Dependence on Programming Experts

[Richmond Mathewson]

WELL. . .

I have a few 'direct' things to say here:

1. I spent 4 years fighting with Fortran 4 (in the late 1970s) and getting only 2 things out of it:

    a monumental headache, and (Ha, Ha, Ha) a reputation as a kid who knew about
    computer programming.

2. I spent a year (mid 80's) fighting with PASCAL and ZILOG (!!!) and getting only 2
    things out of them:

   a monumental headache, and a decent grade as part of my Philosophy degree.

3. In 1993 I went to the States and looked after the baby while my wife started a Masters
   degree - I bought a Mac from Montgomery-Ward (why a Mac? Because my Maternal grandfather's
  family name was Macintosh - a good a reason as any!) and there was Hypercard; it saved me from 
  battering the baby (mind you, he is now a VERY adolescent 14 year old and I have "my moments")>

 no headaches

4. The other day a "maladjusted 15 year-old" landed on my desk - seriously disfunctional
    and seriously defocussed -

    not advocating Runtime Revolution as the complete panacea for mental health problems

  BUT: that kid is now spending all hours of the night and day wading through the documentation
  (2.2.1 Novel Linux free version) on a Pentium 3 running Xubuntu and is producing the traditional
  starter progs ("Hello World", pocket calculator, database thingy and so on) with great gusto AND
  without the supposedly required 2-20 years computing experience first.

There is a place in the world for computing experts - and there is also a place for computerised LEGO kits:
and as far as I can see RR should be good for both.

sincerely, Richmond Mathewson
 
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"Philosophical problems are confusions arising owing to the fluidity of meanings users attach to words and phrases."
                                       Mathewson, 2006
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