🚀 go-pugleaf

Disclaimer: Even though I think that my opinion is worth posting to a
newsgroup with world distribution, I really don't know anything about this
issue :-).

In article <46549@netnews.upenn.edu> yee@mipgsun.mipg.upenn.edu (Conway Yee) writes:

   Ok, I'll bite.  What's the problem?  Licensing merely mandates a minimum
   level of competency.  Many other professions have licensing procedures
   for exactly that reason.  Would you prefer to be treated by a doctor who
   did not have a license to practice medicine?

Minimum level of competency in what? The vast majority of the programmers
affect are probably make their living writing COBOL. Should a would-be
professional have to show a minimum level of competancy in programming in
COBOL? Even if they want to make their living writing 80x86 assembly?

No? Alright then, perhaps there could be different sets of requirements for
different languages. Say, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, C, and ADA. There are two
problems with this. The first is that any new and better language (e.g.
C++. Well, it newer anyway :-)) would be doomed to failure, because any
would-be professional users would have to wait for the state to get around
to coming up with new requirements before being able to be certified.

The second problem is that some of us have no desire to program in any of
these languages. I am a researcher at a university. I am working on a
project that may eventually be available to the public. Suppose that my
advisor had listened to my advice and let us write it in Scheme or ML. Now
the state tells us we can't sell our system because we don't have Scheme
certificates because there is no, and will never be, Scheme certificate.
This would be a ridiculous situation, no?

Ok, so the requirements for the certificate really can't be programming
language specific, right? Instead, the would-be programmer has to
demonstrate, in a language-independent way, that they are a competent
programmer. How? Well, they can't do it by taking a programming test, can
they? Can you image the state examiners trying to grade programs written in
any language under the sun?

So actually programming can't be required for the certificate. Well, how
about requiring a college degree in Computer Science, or something similar?
But this does not ensure competance in programming, does it? Also, do most
professional programmers in NJ have some sort of degree in programming or
CS? I'm sure they do: they wouldn't be able to get a job if they didn't. So
why would we need the certificate at all?

Please let me know if I'm using strawmen here, but I don't believe there
could be a workable system for implementing this bill.