Re: Computing Editorial (please read)

["Kelly Hall" <hall@priest.com>]

"Glen" <lpepicel@nycap.rr.com> wrote in message
3E39F262.5090901@nycap.rr.com">news:3E39F262.5090901@nycap.rr.com...
> C and Assembly programmers are need to do embedded work-- NO one is
> going to make a programmable coffee maker with a pentium chip inside and
> windows nt (or ce or whatever).

As an embedded engineer, I'm happy to agree with you that a pentium is
probably overkill for a coffee maker.  And yet, at Fry's last month I saw a
refrigerator with a built-in PC running windows.

While I prefer to stick to 8 and 16 bit CPUs and a smattering of
programmable logic for my designs, other people can and do choose *wildly*
different hardware.  Pentium-class SBCs are running between $100 and $200
each these days, and my last employer billed my time to their customer at
$100/hr (note: I didn't make anywhere *near* this rate).  Clearly, it will
eventually be cost effective to use highly-overpowered (IMHO) SBCs in low-
to mid-scale volume applications.  Once you start tossing that sort of
hardware into your system, you can easily afford to program it in whatever
language-de-jour your new-hire software guy is fluent in.  That might be
Java, C#, C++, or VB.

At the high-volume, low-cost side of embedded computing, assembly and C and
Forth will always have a place.  In the small-volume custom job realm, I
think you'd be surprised at the variety of development paradigms going on.
Everything from PLCs to PICs to Pentium 4's running LabView and MatLab...

> Dept of homeland security just decided to go with linux last week--
> theres a few VB jobs up in smoke right there.

You have to warn readers ahead of time when you say things like this - I
laughed so hard root beer shot out of my nose.

Kelly