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In 1990 I was invited to a membership review committee by the ACM. I had been a critic of the organization for its failure to address the problems facing the production programmer. Yes, the Special Interest Groups had the occasional useful-to-a-production-programmer article (especially the SIGPLAN). But the vast majority of the publications (Journal, Communication, Review, etc.) were aimed at a more academic audience. ACM did not recognize the problem and I discontinued my membership two years later.
So although ACM has some useful offerings, they come with a price too high.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Gus Gustafson
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I believe the call is raising a very important concern.
While it is true that fault can come from management, but a programmer sitting on a desk may not have the right defense to say 'no' to things that he or she is asked to certain things which do not necessarily is ethical. An association could also make a programmer stronger so that he/she can defend in reference to ethical standards set by the professional association and with the existence of such association, programmers may not be proactively working on the 'unethical' things within the software. Uncle (Bob) Martin would also agree as he has been talking about a need for professionalism for some time now. HEre is the link about Uncle (Bob) Martin's call for professionalism Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob) - Demanding Professionalism in Software Development β Zaneta Baran[^]
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I'm not going to call you a programming snob, but I do think you are biased against VBA programming. It's true that much of the programming in VBA is trivial, but some of it is very complex and supports a multitude of business in their day to day operations. Were it not for VBA these companies would have to pay a fortune for bespoke app's and spend large amounts of time doing things 'manually'.
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Did I not make myself clear in my reply to Andrew L. Meador? Please don't try to draw me into a flame war regarding the worth of any or all programming languages. Each has a place.
I have used VBA but I caution you, in most of my tasks, VBA would not be the language of choice. Systems, embedded, communications, weapons, medical, etc. software would be, in my opinion, very difficult to implement in VBA. But Excel spreadsheet modules are a different story.
And should the organization that I propose come to fruition, VBA programmers would be more than welcome.
Gus Gustafson
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Unionize, never.
Professional organization, like ASME for mechanical engineers, or even like a PE license, yes.
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What about the ACM? The Association for Computing Machinery is about as professional as can be had.
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When I discovered the ACM in 1975, I was just beginning to learn that there was much more to programming than just design and coding. It seemed to me that the ACM was an organization that could help me improve my understanding of algorithms and architecture. I was so impressed that I recruited my peers and students to join the ACM. I had subscriptions to Communications, JACM, Reviews, Transactions, and joined the special interest groups SIGGRAPH, SIGMOD, SIGPLAN, SIGSIM, and SIGSOFT. I ended up with more than 25 boxes of publication that I touted around from job to job. There were a few notable exceptions: Boyer Moore A fast string searching algorithm and Vitter's Implementations for Coalesced Hashing. But it seemed that ACM was aiming solely at academia rather than including programmers-in-the-wild.
The ACM offers little to its members in the way the proposed organization would. So although I agree that the ACM was once (in 1975 - 1998) an organization that programmers should join, I don't think that it would perform the services I suggest. Note too that I proposed such an organization to ACM and was advised it was not interested!
Gus Gustafson
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Is a byproduct the manufacturers last desperate plea?
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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For overweight manufactures, it's considered a waist management problem.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Are the prices better on a pleamarket?
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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If you love something set it free!
But if it's returned is it defective or just coming home?
Give me coffee to change the things I can and wine to accept the things I cannot!
JaxCoder.com
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If you've never used StackBlitz[^] you should really try it out.
It's quite an amazing development platform you can run right in your browser.
Especially if you're learning TypeScript, Angular, React and others. Try it out. It's very cool and free.
But, here is a weird thing they are doing. If you sign up for their paid tiers, they'll send your web site to space. They're putting an RPi with server and web sites on a rocket and sending them into orbit. There's a coutdown timer (about 37 days away). Very odd. But I guess with the Tesla in space and all this is the new Marketing: Send it to space!
Deploy... to Space! π[^]
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Just make sure you use small san-serif fonts and no bold: the extra mass might be too much for the launcher.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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The Futura aint what it used to be.
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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Oh, I've never used StackBlitz, but it might be worth adding it here: Free Tools Discussion Boards[^] - it moves rather less quickly than the Lounge, so it might get a more lasting presence.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Good point, I will post over there with the link. Thanks
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Can I send my ex into space? After all, she lives there already, at least mentally. 
Latest Article - A 4-Stack rPI Cluster with WiFi-Ethernet Bridging
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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Completely random poll, but must be truthful. I'm trying to unwind a large block of magic code across multiple threads, many of them haphazardly borrowing data from each other via globals. I am slowly dying from a thousand cuts.....
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
βThey who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.β BF, 1759
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There are women and children (under 25 that is) who reading my code occasionally, so I can't afford to do so... But the urge is there more than I care to count...
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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Why don't you move the thread to the soapbox so that we can give you some examples???
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
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I occasionally do, but will use * for the vowels to protect the faint of heart.
Latest Article - A 4-Stack rPI Cluster with WiFi-Ethernet Bridging
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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Never, except for one time.
I was working with a product, which shall not be named but it sounds like Crystal Seaports, and I was working with their API which loaded a file and allowed me to set settings runtime.
The files worked with database tables which were in schema's, but the connection string had to be set dynamically for different environments.
So I set the connection string and then some other property and... The file emptied all schema information! 
I searched far and wide for a solution until I finally found some example code that should work.
Copy-pasted it and it worked.
After I cleaned up the code [read: adjusted it to my personal taste] I found it was the exact same code as before except... The other property was now set first and then the connection string.
I switched them around and it broke again, switched them back and it worked again.
I wrote a comment about the code, Crystal R... ehhh Seaports, and the unknown developer who worked on the API.
Nothing good was said in that comment.
I remember using the words "drunk" and "drugged" to describe the unknown developer 
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Profanity? In code comments? Never!
My code is a different matter. It should not rely on comments for clarification anyway.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Never put anything in writing. But, if either of my monitors had ears...
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