On 4/24/07, UNIX admin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The number of true IT experts and professionals is dwindling exponentially every day.
Dindling exponentially? Where are they all going? Perhaps systems are getting harder to use so professionals are lkess productive and we nee more ofthem?
I've got people working as Oracle DBAs on Solaris not knowing how to set up a PATH variable properly!
Seriously, why should they care about an ancient implementation artefact? Why isn't their PATH just set properly anyway so they can get right on and do the work they're paid for?
Can we dumb things down?
Is it actually dumbing down? Or making things easier to use? My time - and that of users and customers - is precious, and we should do everything we can to provide tools that aid users make the best use of their precious time. Good graphical interfaces that can be used without effort do just that. (The downside to this argument is that most GUI interfaces - like most CLI interfaces - are badly designed, user hostile, and don't really make the user's life better. We shouldn't accept that, but should strive to make tools that are easier to use and that users are comfortable with.) (As an anecdote of marginal relevance to the original subject, I once tried at home to put some images on a CD. The home PC was simply incapable of doing this - it had numerous tools that cliamed to be able to do this, both bundled and unbundled. After a few failures it was starting to become a challenge, so I persevered. Some applications had incomprehensible user interfaces that made it impossible to do simple things like select the files I wanted; others refused to recognize the CD writer; the rest produced coasters. In disgust I turned the Solaris box on and had written the CD in a few minutes. But the command line was far harder than a well designed GUI *should* have been.)
So this approach of "dumbing things down" for the "newbie" can very well turn to be the undoing of IT and CS. Who will be left to work on all this advanced stuff if we raise a generation of "clicky-bunty" masses?
The people with the talent to do the advanced stuff will do it anyway. And they will choose to work on those platforms that they find to have value to them. Which, by and large, will have user-friendly ways of making their whole lives easier. -- -Peter Tribble http://www.petertribble.co.uk/ - http://ptribble.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
