Now that murder, mayhem, pollution, affordable housing, and too much taxation are no longer problems in New Jersey, state legislators are focusing their bureaucratic bombsights on more heinous criminals -- unlicensed programmers.
In a bill proposed by Assemblywoman Barbara Kalik, anyone calling him- or herself a software engineer in New Jersey would have to pass a written test and (more to the point, I bet) pay a license fee. Kalik claims the legislation would provide an industry-wide standard -- administered by the State Board of Software Engineers -- for computer programmers, similar to the state proficiency standards set for barbers, plumbers, acupuncturists, and morticians. The bill has passed the Assembly, but not yet the Senate. Similar measures are being considered in California, Texas, Ohio, and Tennessee.
Whence, you might ask, does this proposal spring? Are billions of bytes of bug-ridden code being written in New Jersey, causing angry mobs to clamor for justice and structured programming? Not really, a spokesperson in Kalik's office admitted. Instead, a "couple" of Kalik's constituents observed that anyone in New Jersey can call himself a programmer. The "solution" to this intolerable situation, they said (and Kalik agreed), is a certification process that "tests the applicant's knowledge of software engineering theory and procedures and any other subjects the board may deem useful." This examination gambit has run into rough waters even before leaving the dock. A single test won't work, Kalik realizes, because of the broad nature of computer science. Requiring exams in all areas of specialization, on the other hand, would cost more than the state can take in. What's a politician to do?
Here's a suggestion: If a particular programmer can't do the task at hand, let him or her get more training -- or get someone who can do the job. Now that I think about it, this idea might work for politicians, too.
The first commercial implementation of 386BSD UNIX has just been announced and is due for release within the next few months. See page 152 of this issue for details.
I'm pleased to announce the recipients of this year's Kent Porter Memorial Scholarship: Michael Leventhal of the University of California-Berkeley and Cameron Gordon of the University of Southern Maine. Each will receive a $500 scholarship.
Likewise, a pair of contests we announced several months back -- one sponsored by DDJ, the other by Symantec Corp. -- have been wrapped up.
The Symantec Think Programming Contest was open to college and high-school students working in Think C or Pascal. At the college level, Brad Smith of Beltsville, Md. was the grand prize winner, and runners-up were Atul Butte of Providence, R.I. and David Harkness of Los Angeles. The winner at the high school level was Robert Leslie of Concord, N.H., with Adam Miller of Ithaca, N.Y. and Seth LaForge of Berkeley, Calif. as runners-up. Grand prize winners received from Symantec a $5000 scholarship, a Macintosh IIci system, and a lifetime subscription to DDJ. Runners-up received $500 and a one-year subscription to DDJ.
The other announced competition was the DDJ Data Compression Contest. I won't go into details about the results, other than to direct you to Mark Nelson's article on page 62 of this issue. Thanks to all of you who sent in entries.
I'd be remiss when mentioning data compression not to say something about what Michael Barnsley has been up to lately. Barnsley, of fractal compression fame and Iterated Systems Inc., stopped by the office to show off some really impressive technology. Barnsley has upped the compression ante with compression ratios of 2456:1 -- with rates of 10,000:1 by next summer! The techniques that make this phenomenal compression possible are implemented in (among other programs) a Windows application called the "P.OEM Fractal Formatter." Equally amazing is that Barnsley is doing this in software; up until now, you needed a hardware compression board.
As if the extraordinary compression weren't enough, Barnsley's technology is "resolution independent," meaning that it can be displayed at infinite resolution, depending on the isplay hardware. To change from one display resolution to another, you simply have to change the driver and nothing more. Additionally, Barnsley is releasing the specification for what he calls the "Fractal Image Format" (FIF), an alternative to PCX, TIFF, BMP, and the like. His Fractal Formatter app lets you convert image files back and forth in these various formats, including FIF.
You gotta see this stuff to believe it.
Copyright © 1991, Dr. Dobb's Journal