Re: Excavators [was: A language idea: Elle]

[Bruce Lewis <address@hidden>]

Someone writes back to me personally:

> Bruce Lewis <brlewis@alum.mit.edu> writes:
> 
> > If success is a hard sell to the decision-makers, you're working with
> > the wrong decision-makers.
> 
> Amen.  But where do I find the right ones?  I want to work for them.

I ended up with the right decision-makers partly by accident, so I can't
totally claim to speak from experience.  However, chances are that if
you seek out people who have been successful at what they're doing for a
long time, then you'll find good decision-makers.

However, even good decision-makers want proof before investing heavily
in a new tool, so here's the strategy:

During the requirements-gathering phase of a project, quickly crank out
a mockup using the best tool for the job.  Use this mockup to refine
exactly what the end product should look like.  Then, when requirements
have been refined, point out that the mockup is fully functional.

Chances are, good decision-makers will be impressed, and will be more
interested in adding features that help them do their jobs better,
rather than re-writing the whole thing in whatever the masses out there
claim to be using.

My BRL work continues to win me points with my employer.  A coworker
from a PowerBuilder/VBScript background was able to pick it up and do
good work with it.  I get to use Scheme almost every day.  It isn't
impossible to end up in this situation.

Caveat: I'm not really supposed to use BRL for new projects.  Only two
programmers in a group of seven have experience with it.  However, due
to extreme deadlines on a recent new project I was allowed to use it
anyway, because they know code can be cranked out fast with it.

We'll see how far I can spread it in 2003.


-- 
<brlewis@[(if (brl-related? message)    ; Bruce R. Lewis
              "users.sourceforge.net"   ; http://brl.codesimply.net/
              "alum.mit.edu")]>