Re: not enough real programmers? (was Re: Byte Magazine: 18 Vintage issues, 1985-1986)

[brucehoult@pobox.com (Bruce Hoult)]

In article <hshubs-0508991217370001@user-33qscke.dialup.mindspring.com>,
hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs) wrote:

> In article <brucehoult-0508991607030001@bruce.bgh>, brucehoult@pobox.com
> (Bruce Hoult) wrote:
> 
> >If US$85/hour for programming Java is "cheap" then please tell me where
> >you work and I'll go there next time!
> 
> They could get me for much less than that, depending on location, if
> they'll allow me a few weeks to learn the language.  But do they ask?  Do
> they even get the idea that for a programmer to learn a language is not a
> real problem?  No.

Actually those guys pretty much paid for me to learn Java -- they told me
I'd be doing C++ but while I was in transit from NZ they decided to get me
to do Java stuff.  Luckily I'd packed my Java in a Nutshell (ok, I wasn't
a *complete* stranger to Java, but the most I'd done with it was start to
teach my girlfriend to program).


> >It sure looked like a programmer shortage in the US to me!
> 
> A real programmer can and will pick up a language like a sponge picks up
> water, given a reason to do so.  For some reason, I no longer have the
> curiousity to do it on my own.

Weeell.  This week I had Unisys Outsourcing pay me to learn Perl as the
previous times that I'd looked at it by myself I'd gone *Yuk!!* and
stopped.  But, on the other hand, I like Dylan so much that I'm spending
all my free time working on a public domain compiler for it
(<http://www.gwydiondylan.org>).

So it varies...

-- Bruce