What makes a programmer "bad" or "average"?
... Programming skills probably fall under a bell curve
True, but as with football, only people on the upper tail of that curve
do it for a living.
As for "bad", or "average", here are some rough categories:
"bad" - lumps problems into trash can diagnoses: doesn't understand
what state the system may be in, tends to apply incorrect treatments as
a result. But given the proper diagnosis will apply the proper
treatment.
"average" - accurate diagnoses, limited prognoses, effective in acute
interventions.
"good" - accurate prognosis. Not only understands what state the
system is in, but has a clear idea of which possible states* it may be
in the future. Can provide therapy that solves current problems while
avoiding recurrence and undesirable side-effects (effective long-term
management).
where the average for the bell-curve as a whole is below "bad", and the
average for teams which silklisters put together is, we hope, well
above "good".
-Dave
:: :: ::
* Perlis:
Programmers are not to be measured by their ingenuity and their logic
but by the completeness of their case analysis.
