Part III: Laurent Bossavit – A journeyman’s tale
Second session of the track “Professional Developer”
Laurent established a parallel between ancient craftsman’s guilds – especially French “Compagnonnage“, cathedral builders and other workers federations since the end XIth century – and software craft community: constituent parts of their identity (traditions, legacy of values, networking structure, tools…) can be recognized in software development or project management. These associations claim mutual help, sharing, continuous improvement and transmission of skills and knowledge.
Actually, I like the social aspect of the idea (e.g. acquisition of skills by imitation and mentoring and the need for recognition of our work from the others… these things that deals with ego and society [mimesis, alterity]) but I was not totally convinced by the whole presentation… I am not sure some aspects of the comparison can apply very deeply. Others seem too universal. Lot of people walked out during the presentation, probably too focused on historical details or because they couldn’t recognize themselves in the comparison.
A point of view can be disputed – and actually, during the presentation, it was! Laurent seemed to suggest that teaching computer science at university was worthless.
The problems of education and learning returned many times during the conference. I already mentioned Bob Martin saying “unfortunately being a good developer is not taught at school” (see Professional Developer Part I).
In the industry, the lack of theoretical knowledge is obvious. Theoretical instruction must be emphasized at university as well as at high schools. Teach an implementation of an object-oriented technology (Java, C#, whatever) for example or any product is insufficient and reductive. Teach abstractions, concepts. Teach that there is something beyond objects! University as a special role to play and that’s why university is essential. Research is essential. If there is a place where software development can be a Science, it is at university, isn’t it? Productivity is the driving force behind industry. University should allow thinking out of normative power of industry and fashions.
This recall me how I was surprised when I read in James Coplien’s thesis (Multi-Paradigm Design) that “[Bjarne] Stroustrup has never called C++ an object-oriented programming language”.
