Hi bob,

>>Overall, a very small percentage of developers (in any language, I think) buy books, buy magazines, go to user groups, go to conferences, or participate in online forums.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>Gee, and people wonder why software is almost always late, over budget and full of bugs and isn't close to what the users need.
>
>Perhaps this is also the problem with so called 'programming' degrees. You are only taught the 'technical' aspects of programming. A degree in programming should include learning all phases of application developement from soup to nuts, including the role of the managers, analysts, developers and users.

I don't know that for sure. I have a programming degree (or actually a degree in Computer Science), I not only was learned to program in the right way, but I also was learned to to analize, design systems. Make management- presentations and documentations. After 4 years of study only the ones who were reasonable good in all aspects remained. The die hard coders were just stuck in year 1 because besides coding they had not the quality to get any further.

OTOH, many programmers do not have had such a balanced education. They've got to learn it from experience and this is harder than it seems like at first sight.

Walter,