Wednesday, February 26, 2003

David reports in from the Blackboard conference #

David Carter-Tod writes: Just a quick note (because none of the cybercafe computers have chairs and my feet are killing me), but the conference is going quite well.  Many sessions have been overcrowded and people weren't able to get in.  That was quite upsetting, but they've reconfigured some rooms today and it's improved (although not perfect).  Free food (and drink!) is good, although trying to feed 1500 people in 30 minutes with a buffet is optimistic. Thanks for the report -- it's great to hear what's happening in the practical world of learning management systems, specifically Blackboard.  Of techie interest to me is David's comment on SOAP support in Blackboard: As I think about it, exposing the SOAP interfaces is almost more productive because you won't need permission and licenses to do interesting things and experiment with what you can do (although, I do recall that you need a digital certificate).  They're already demo-ing MS Excel connecting directly to the Blackboard gradebook using SOAP - almost an archetypical application. David, I hope that you get to enjoy some of the food and get some more sleep!   Posted by Raymond Yee on 2/26/03; 3:27:16 PM from the Unclassified dept. Discuss

A celebration of scripting languages #

As I'm sitting down to write a job description for a programming position that I'm trying to fill (more details later for those of you out there looking for work or who knows someone right for the job), I came across this great column by Chad Dickerson of Infoworld.  He reminded me that not only are scripting languages wonderful (I knew that already), but that I shouldn't downplay them in favor of so-called "real languages" in hiring people.  I was tempted to write about how much Java skills I want in someone -- but really, at this point, it would be more useful to get someone who develop quick prototypes in Python and Perl to move things along.  Here's a quote from Dickerson: On a practical level, I've found that two things happen in these environments: 1) many of the most talented scripters eventually become disgruntled and leave for scripting-friendly pastures, and 2) the "real" developers spend days and weeks writing Java and C++ code to solve problems that those talented Perl or Python programmers could have knocked out in a few hours. If you put the world's most talented Java developer and the world's best Perl programmer in a room and gave them an unstructured textual document to parse, I would put my money on the Perl programmer to finish first. When you're going on a one-mile hike, you shouldn't weigh yourself down with a full set of silverware, a saw, scissors, and an inflatable boat just in case you run into a raging river. You take a light backpack, a bottle of water, and a Swiss Army knife. That's the mentality behind scripting -- when going on a one-mile programming hike, the tools for climbing Everest will only weigh you down. I agree with Jon when he says, "I'm still hoping we'll promote scripting languages to the first-class status they deserve." At InfoWorld, scripting languages are not only first-class citizens, they have received my CTO Medal of Honor. In the ideal world, I'll be looking for someone who is good at both Java and Perl -- but will I find that many people who embody both sets of skills?  Maybe in this job market, there are some people out there looking for work who can do both.    Posted by Raymond Yee on 2/26/03; 12:24:00 PM from the Web Technology dept. Discuss