Mmmm, this analogy is flawed, what about reconsidering it along the lines of:
Car mechanics = electrical engineering / comp org / comp architecture Driving professionally = programming / software engineering Driving casually = using a computer While each "level" can somewhat ignore the others, within each level is where the real question lies. The argument of this post was that a computing professional should be aware of software-level concepts, techniques and implementations to grant him a "big picture" vision of the discipline which would, in turn, allow him/her to take one step back and abstract from this knowledge when necessary. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lindsay Marshall Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 4:32 AM To: Frank Wales; discuss@ppig.org Subject: RE: PPIG discuss: Programmer education argument-starter of the week > "If you don't know how compilers work, you don't know how computers work." > http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/06/rich-programmer-food.html > Seems pretty uncontroversial to me. :-) Of course it is, but the question that this gives rise to is "why do you need to know how computers work?" There are loads of things I use every single day that I only have the vaguest idea of how they work (diesel engine, microwave, brain) and that doesn't stop me. And indeed knowing how a diesel engine works would not improve my driving one iota. L. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List (discuss@ppig.org) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List (discuss@ppig.org) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
