William Chops Westfield wrote: > As I've become older and perhaps "more professional", I've become > increasingly negative about programming "contests"; they are just > TOO far removed from what makes a successful product in the real > world. I agree completely. > It's like comparing a week-long homework assignment in > university to a year-long 20-person development team... One of > the aspects most sorely missing from the contest mentality is > teamwork and cooperation within a larger organization/environment > (which includes customers, even if you ARE a "lone programmer.") Another aspect that bugs me is how much of it is based on how fast you can write something. In the real world fast is good, but that's measured in days or weeks not minutes. Competing on speed at the level of minutes forces a lot of the wrong practises for producing good real world code. This is also the thing I don't like about the Microchip Masters robotic contest and why I refuse to participate. They give you a bunch of low level routines already written and you're supposed to add the application layer in a couple of hours or so. This means many of the design decisions have already been made and there much opportunity for thinking outside the box has been eliminated. If they wanted to do it right, they'd release the specs for the robot with schematics and problem description a month before Masters. There'd be no code at all on the PIC. You could come up with whatever solution you wanted to, and then use the time at Masters for final debug and test. ****************************************************************** Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014. #1 PIC consultant in 2004 program year. http://www.embedinc.com/products -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist