Re: Latest Joel article

"Bob Dawson" <RBDawson@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:43b6800a$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Maybe Joel needs to stop waxing nostalgic about Latin, and start figuring
> out a better way to think about applicants. The first thing to consider is
> asking what he really wants--and I'd suggest that that's /not/ the ability
> to whip out pointer code on a whiteboard, and really never was.
>

Computer science and technology is all about levels of abstraction, and I
think that's what Joel is getting at.

You start at the highest level of abstraction (user interface modelling,
say) and gently burrow down through overall system designs, class
hierarchies, algorithms and data structures, high-level programming
languages,pointers, assembler, machine code, microcode, VHDL, registers,
flipflops, transistors and quantum theory...

IMO, what distinguishes a great engineer from a good one is the DEPTH of
abstractions that they can handle if required. Everybody has bounds at which
they think "here be dragons", and they just have to assume that the lower
levels work, and they don't really care how it happens. For me, it's at the
microcode level (although in truth I haven't used assembler for years).

Knowledge of many levels below - or above - say, Delphi is a sign of an
inquisitive nature: This also is usually a sign of a good engineer.

- Roddy


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