>>Then again, given that a person can deliver a quality solution, the language is only the tool used to implement it. In other words, the development environment is less important than the problems solving skills used to create the solution.
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>I agree to an extent. Some programs are completely no-brainers. I try to stay away from those programs. I have a feeling you do the same (try to find something challenging).
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>That is the great thing about being a programmer. We have to know methods and procedures inside-out...and we have to get the computer to do these things...we have to translate speech (desires) and procedures into basic, simple logic. Then we get the computer to perform these tasks. In the mean time, we learn a lot. Through my job, I have gained an incedible amount of knowledge about the insurance industry. I have to know, not just a little, but a lot of every area in our industry. To design a computer system that can handle the changes in our industry is exciting and challenging.
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>I am sure it is the same for most programmers.
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>When I started here (MDM Insurance Services Inc.), I never worked in any Foxpro before (DBase and Clipper though...). I learned VFP a lot quicker than I learned what I had to know about the industry and the office procedures in our company. That is the challenge. We as programmers know how to program. Period. What we have to be able to do is learn other things and get the computer to 'understand' those things too. Then the computer does its job...
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>Anyways..."problems solving skills"...I actually agree completely...that is the difference between a programmer and a user. If the tool is more important than the skills, then maybe you are just a user doing a little programming...
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>Anyways, take care.

I've always felt that being able to learn the client's business well enough to write him a usable program was at least as important for an independent programmer as his/her skill with methods and functions. I've seen far too many half-finished programs where the client gave up on a programmer who 'couldn't understand what we were trying to do'. My clients range from surgeons to plumbers to warehouse inventory, and I'm fascinated by the similarities as well as the differences.

We make a point of the client's needs, insisting on spending time with the worker-bees as well as the bosses. I spent large parts of several weeks last winter in an open warehouse figuring out the workflow there so the (computer illiterate and in some cases non-English-speaking) workers could use the system easily. Otherwise it wasn't going to be used. Found they needed special keyboards and printers as well as screens with few words and lots of pictures, but they're using the program...

Barbara