[Info-vax] Python for x86?

[Dave Froble]

On 4/17/2023 7:25 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 4/17/2023 3:00 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> Simon Clubley  <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:
>>> On 2023-04-14, bill <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> On 4/14/2023 1:46 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>>> My point is that Python has a major thing going for it in that it is
>>>>> relatively easy to learn and use by people who are not professional
>>>>> programmers or professional sysadmins.
>>>>
>>>> And if all there was to programming was syntax that might be a good
>>>> thing.  But it isn't and having all these totally unqualified asses
>>>> writing "programs" is certainly not a good thing.
>>>
>>> That is a totally out of touch and _extremely_ elitist thing to say Bill.
>>>
>>> We are talking about applications and areas that have skilled domain
>>> knowledge experts, but who are not computer programmers. What you
>>> appear to be saying is that these people are not allowed to use their
>>> expertise until they become C or C++ experts.
>>
>> I don't think it is elitist or out of touch at all.
>>
>> 25 years ago, those skilled domain knowledge experts would be sitting down
>> with a programmer and telling the programmer what they wanted, and the
>> programmer would be saying things like "Would it be okay if we did it in
>> THIS order because it would be faster?" and things like "If this value is
>> zero, it's not going to work, so will this ever be zero?"  There would be
>> a team with the programmer and the subject matter expert.
>>
>> Now more likely we have SMEs writing code and I hate to say it but this is
>> often a very very bad idea.  "It's okay, I can use Matlab for the database
>> engine!"  I wish I were joking about that but I am not.
>
> "shadow IT" is a real problem. Adhoc hacked code with no
> development process that is impossible to maintain, contains security
> vulnerabilities, performs poorly etc.etc..
>
> But it is not all types of programming that requires a formal
> development process.
>
> Sure for the major application that are doing something important
> and are expected to live for 10-20-30-40 years years, then it
> should be a given.
>
> But there are other types of programming:
> * the finance person that need to automate some stuff
>   in Excel and do it in VBA
> * the finance person that want to see how various
>   interest scenarios impact the budget and do it
>   in Python
> * the sys admin that need to automate some processes
>   and do it in shell/Python
> * the sys admin that need to move a lot of stuff around
>   as a one time thing and do it in shell/Python
> * the data person that need to export a lot of data from
>   some data sources and load them into a DWH and do it
>   in Python
> * the data science person that need to try out hundreds
>   of different forecast models to find the best model and
>   do it in Python/R/Matlab
> etc.
>
> In those cases the formal development process does not
> make any sense. It takes too long time and cost too much
> money.
>
> Arne

But what's the problem of running ideas past some decent analysts?  That assumes 
said analysts will provide the time.


-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
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