Switching from CVS to Subversion: test svn repo available

[Derek Atkins]

Chris Shoemaker <c.shoemaker at cox.net> writes:

> Just because it's *technically* possible doesn't mean there's not a
> problem. (It just means there's no technical problem.)  The real
> problem is PSYCHOLOGICAL.  Email is final.  For whatever reason, and

You never try to solve a social problem with a technical solution.
It's the wrong layer and is ALWAYS bound to fail.  Similarly,
you shouldn't try to solve social problems with technical
solutions.  At /best/ you can have a combined solution, where
there is some technical change and some social change.

> Actually, good tools *do* reduce the work involved in writing good
> code.  Why else would we use them?

No, a bad programmer will still write rotten code regardless of the
tools available, and a good programmer can still write great code
without any tools at all.  The tools just make their lives easier
(sometimes -- sometimes the tools make their lives harder).  You use a
tool to ease the burden, not to improve the quality of the output.  At
least until we have a tool that will automatically write the code for
us, but let's not go there this decade.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available