Re: Career questions: databases

From: DA Morgan <damorgan_at_psoug.org>
Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2007 23:55:03 -0700
Message-ID: <1183359304.497230_at_bubbleator.drizzle.com>


dreamznatcher wrote:

> I'm really perplexed here. I never on heaven or earth could have ever
> imagined a single word I used could have spawned all this...
> "proficient".

Words have meaning and since this isn't a conversation where we can read facial expressions we are left with nothing but the literal word.

  Who really cares, anyway, as long as (as Neil points
> out) I (or anyone claiming to be proficient in any particular area)
> manages to get a job done?

I do. I do a lot. And I completely disagree.

Someone writing this can get the job done:

  BEGIN
   FOR r IN (SELECT * FROM parent)
   LOOP

     r.part_num := r.part_num * 10;
     INSERT INTO child
     VALUES
     (r.part_num, r.part_name);

   END LOOP;
   COMMIT;
END slow_way;
/

I guarantee you it will get the job done. And I would consider the person that wrote it mediocre or worse if they didn't write it as an example of bad code.

> We're all developers here, some good, some
> bad; but in the end all that matters if we can deliver or not.. and
> how (i.e. timeliness, accuracy, quality, interface, stability..). I
> guess it's the "how" part here in the argument that's raising all the
> hullabaloo.

Again I disagree. What matters after one passes the test for minimal competency is does it meet the SLA. Is it secure, for example from SQL Injection, does it minimize disk i/o, does it minimize parses, does it minimize undo. These are not things done by those who consider SQLCODE = 0 a success.

> Let's be frank and admit that avid developers are more often
> perfectionists than not. We have to be on the top of the game, we have
> to be top-notch;

I couldn't disagree more. Avid <> Competent. And the number of those who are at the "top of the game," in my experience, does not justify your enthusiasm.

> So adhering to that philosophy, how do you classify proficiency or
> expertise? I can't.

What's wrong with accepting the definition of the word as defined in the dictionary? Have you considered a career in politics? <g>

> There are zillions of people alive and kicking who can know everything
> by the book and deliver flawless code if given the chance...

Not to be rude here but ... no there are not.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu (replace x with u to respond)
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group
www.psoug.org
Received on Mon Jul 02 2007 - 08:55:03 CEST

Original text of this message