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Lost Programming Skills

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zridling:
Daniel Dern makes some good points on What today's coders don't know and why it matters
http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/190213/lost-programming-skills

Today's coders may know how to whip up a PHP script or a Drupal extension, create a mobile app for both the iPhone and Android, and run DOOM on their car's GPS (which has been done, it turns out). But there's a lot that their predecessors knew that today's programmers don't.

Some of these skills aren't likely to be needed again, any more than most of us need to know how to ride a horse or (sigh) drive a manual-transmission vehicle. But other skills and "lessons learned" may still or again prove relevant, whether developers are banging their heads against legacy systems, coding for new mobile and embedded devices... or other devices and applications we haven't yet thought of.

Here's what some industry veterans and seasoned coders think the younger generation doesn't know ... but should.

mwb1100:
There are some good points in the article, but a fair bit of it has the ring of old timers telling stories about walking uphill both to and from school (and I'm an old timer, so I'm entitled to call them on it).

But the one that really got me: "machining cast iron" is a lost programming skill?  I guess there was a day when you might have to forge your own heat sink, but I think something just went over my head...

MilesAhead:
I didn't see the bit about cast iron. Only thing I can think of is that must've been the old method of creating firmware.  Instead of punching a rectangular hole in a card they used a punch press on an iron sheet.  Guess it made it more difficult for disgruntled employees to erase system code.

40hz:
Long on 'what,' but way too short on 'why.' As a result, it's a little too much like preaching to the choir. Which is a shame. Because there are some very good points being made.

As mwb1100 noted:

There are some good points in the article, but a fair bit of it has the ring of old timers telling stories about walking uphill both to and from school (and I'm an old timer, so I'm entitled to call them on it).
--- End quote ---

 :)

cranioscopical:
old timers telling stories about walking uphill both to and from school (and I'm an old timer, so I'm entitled to call them on it).
-mwb1100 (August 07, 2011, 08:43 PM)
--- End quote ---

We couldn't afford a school. I had to walk both ways (uphill, in the snow, no shoes) just to tend the loom.  :(

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