[PLUG] Slightly OT: PCC software engineering program

[Jeff Schwaber]

> seemed to imply that CS grad's are thus lesser programmers starting
> out, then the fact as well grants them pardon for it; although I
> apologize if this unintended suggestion was cause for offense.  By my
> sword, I am no troll!

Let me add what I didn't have time to add before. You have said in
several of your posts that you worship at the gate of the Design
Document, and the Plan, and that anyone who jumps in without a formal
specification written is a bad programmer. Maybe you haven't been quite
that extreme, but that's the direction you've been going with your
statements.

And you claim this to have been taught to you as the gospel of Software
Engineering, when in fact the chief reason why Software Engineering is
barely included in the curriculum of Computer Science is that,
accurately enough, Computer Scientists are skeptical that Software
Engineers _know_ anything. They all believe something, but they all
believe different things.

One of the major "movements" in Software Engineering is eXtreme
Programming, and while part of it recommends planning, part of it
recommends high flexibility--write what you need for the feature you're
working on now, rather than trying to think through to every feature,
because inevitably you won't be able to, and inevitably you'll end up
working way out of your way for something you think might happen a year
down the road, when that feature gets cut, or worse, turns out to be
much easier than you foresaw, you've wasted a huge amount of time. 

Ultimately, planning is a useful tool, and should never be completely
ignored, but is not the Deity you make it out to be.

Jeff