Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!gegeweb.org!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx04.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Jim Janney Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: natural/native language capabilities (was: unchecked conversion warning.) Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:01:56 -0600 Organization: he sent them word I had not gone Lines: 48 Message-ID: References: <3s7cs7hd18l0ffci55ns0286n4lc4cutlu@4ax.com> <24hfs7hqsr75jmqgk87jcpfg85kif7nhuo@4ax.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: mx04.eternal-september.org; posting-host="dZdavj/jUDynNQgDq5jkeA"; logging-data="13672"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18++bHMyih1pB6Ge0uDMrEb" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:qfX4nPnPEoaRPaEGpStaYLhDZts= sha1:WANMD7MI1JMfI1H/NogoT0hDltk= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:14986 ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) writes: > Jim Janney writes: >>If I ever found myself screening applicants for a programming job (not >>something that's ever likely to happen) I would be very tempted to ask >>them to write a short essay. If you can write clearly then I know you >>can think clearly too. > > »I've found that some of the best [Software ]developers > of all are English majors. They'll often graduate with > no programming experience at all, and certainly without > a clue about the difference between DRAM and EPROM. > > But they can write. That's the art of conveying > information concisely and clearly. Software development > and writing are both the art of knowing what you're going > to do, and then lucidly expressing your ideas.« > > http://praisecurseandrecurse.blogspot.com/2007/03/english-majors-as-programmers.html > > »Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally > good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital > asset of a competent programmer.« > > Edsgar Dijkstra > > »While sloppy writing does not invariably mean sloppy > thinking, we've generally found the correlation to be > strong -- and we have no use for sloppy thinkers. > If you can't yet write competently, learn to.« > > Eric Raymond > > http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#skills4 > > »The narrative measures of conjunction use, event > content, perspective shift, and mental state reference > were significantly predictive of later Math scores.« > > http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/%7Edoneill/papers/Storytelling%20and%20math.pdf Not an original thought, obviously :-) There are probably counter-arguments to be made, but I don't recollect ever seeing one. Not a well-written one, anyway... -- Jim Janney