Re: Some Laws
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 18:56:59 -0700
Message-ID: <v5j9l0pusp9afv3a3sirs6vj0hechapnrb_at_4ax.com>
"Laconic2" <laconic2_at_comcast.net> wrote:
[snip]
>Back to "legacy". As long as the word "legacy" is used as a pejorative in
>our field, our field is condemned to remain forever immature. I imagine
>that "legacy" was originally coined as a euphemism. But like all
>substitutes for pejoratives, it eventually became a pejorative itself.
From my sig collection:
legacy (adj) - A pejorative term used in the computer industry meaning "it works."
>Our legacy includes Shannon and Turing, Von Neumann, Nash and Wiener,
>Dijkstra, Knuth, and Wirth. Vannevar Bush, Eckhart and Mauchly. Grace
>Hopper. Ed Codd, Date and Darwen. And so on, and so on. Why do we
>continue to let people graduate believing that the "stone age" ended 6 years
>ago.
They can do something, but they do not know what else there is. I took some flak in the diploma program I just graduated from such people. Because I prefer a CLI for much of my work, I was told that I did not understand GUIs. That was not true, but the deer-in-headlights look when they had to deal with CLI was notable.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
I have preferences. You have biases. He/She has prejudices.Received on Sat Sep 25 2004 - 03:56:59 CEST