On Tuesday, February 10, 1998 8:56 AM, Michael Feldman [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] wrote:
> Last semester, I spent an hour in my office with a guy from Redmond,
> a techie/manager from the Office 97 (9X?) project.
[snip]
> He really wanted to tell me that he thought our students were learning
> too much about software engineering and abstraction, and not enough
> close-to-the-metal efficiency. He quizzed them about all sorts of things
> and found them wanting in this area. He was looking for "brilliant
> hackers" (his words), not engineers. He said he appreciated the need
> for quality software at Boeing, but not all the world was airplanes.

Read "Gates : How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry And Made
Himself the Richest Man in America" by Stephen Manes, Paul Andrews,
and you will understand where this techie/manager's attitude.

However, I'm a little surprised that this attitude has survived all the
bad press Microsoft has gotten on lack of quality in their products.

It's a good book.  I highly recommend it.

--
Terry J. Westley, Principal Engineer
Calspan, An operation of Veridian
P.O. Box 400, Buffalo, NY 14225
[log in to unmask]   http://www.calspan.com