That's exactly what I was saying from the beginning. Typing code is not programming, as some on this thread think. Using your experience and knowledge to solve problems is programming. And nobody can take away that. I can delete all the code I have and I'll make even better in no time, once I cracked the problems and figured out the best architecture for certain business needs.
--- In [email protected], "Kerry Thompson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Jeffry Houser wrote: > > > It really depends on what that knowledge is. > > That's really key. Let me give you a real-world example involving code, > rather than hardwood floors and toothbrushes ;-) > > I've specialized in localization and internationalization for 15-20 years. > I'm bilingual, so that helps--that's a pre-existing skill I bring to every > job, and no contract is ever going to take that away from me. > > About 10-15 years ago, in the Windows 3.1 days, I wrote a library, in C, to > display Chinese characters on English Windows 3.1. It was breakthrough > technology back then, and Sony paid me well for it. There is no way I could > ethically or legally use that code again (it's a moot point now, of course). > > Last year I had a Director project in 8 languages, including 4 Asian > languages. The current version of Director then, MX 2004, didn't support > Unicode, and had no way to display Chinese. So I did what a genius friend of > mine, Mark Jonkman, did--I used a Flash sprite to display the CCJK text. > > I can't legally or ethically re-use that same code. But I can darn sure use > Flash to display Unicode text within a Director movie. It might soon be a > moot point also, since Director 11 supports Unicode, and Director 12 might > be usable, but the point is that I'm using a known, pre-existing technique. > Sure, I refined and polished it, and I'll take that skill and knowledge with > me to the next gig. Just not the code. Snippets, maybe, but not the whole > shebang. > > Cordially, > > Kerry Thompson >
