way OT: IITRAN was Re: RX02 and intel hex file tools

On 1/30/2006 at 12:09 PM Dwight Elvey wrote: ...and I think we need to differentiate "coding" from "programming". Most of the large projects I've been responsible for were a line manager's nightmare. Months of seemingly nothing to show, no demonstrations, not a line of code written. Then, with the deadline looming on the horizon, with management swallowing valium by the handful--boom--the whole thing is suddenly born, more-or-less fully-formed and functional with minor nits for bugs. To me, the months of nothing happening are what I would call "programming"; the last bit is what I would call coding--and, as long as the design specs were readable, and care was made to preserve coding style, that last bit could be farmed out to kids right out of school, with just the occasional peek over the shoulder. The term "Programming Language" to me, perhaps save for some CASE tools, is an oxymoron. No implementation language, be it JOVIAL or Ada, actually helps you do the real programming bit. When the programming is done right, the tools necessary for coding are generally pretty inconsequential. Some implementation languages don't handle certain tasks well; you can choose to find a way to overcome this or you can find another implementation language that does--or write one yourself. Cheers, Chuck