24 Nov
2007
24 Nov
'07
3:54 p.m.
Tools are developed to make a job easier and do it
better; in my opinion taking
advantage of those tools and doing things "the easy way" makes you more
professional, not less.
I would agree, but...
1) Being able ot use the tools, however proficiently, does not
necessarily equate with being able to design/make those tools. I haev
never used dBase (or any other database for that matter), so I can't
comment on that, but I will claim that being able to use _some_
application programs does not make you a programmer.
2) The initial question was about education. Education is not production.
When you're prodcuing something, of course you use all the applicable
tools. When you're leaning about things, you have to do things 'by hand'
to understand them (and example of this, from another context, is that
photography couses used to insist that the students used cameras with
manaul focuessing and exposure cotnrol, so they could learn what said
adjustments meant, even though if you were being paid to take photographs
you would _probably_ welcome some automation). I fact I will go further
and say that the true professionals not only use the right tools, but
also fully understnad how those tools work and behave, because that way
they can use them more effectvely.
A programming professional's job is to deliver a product that meets the client's
needs, is well documented and easily maintained, and is delivered on time and
within budget. Knowing or caring about the arcane details of a disk drive or being
able to program an OS-less computer in binary may matter if you're working on
an embedded controller but it's pretty irrelevant if the project is a client
accounting
system for a large financial institution.
Tuew, but a 'client system for a large finanicail instution' is hardly
the only type ofr computer application.
-tony