On Tue, 2005-08-09 at 13:18 +1000, Erik de Castro Lopo wrote: > skaller wrote: > > > The question is .. why did you ask management? > > I didn't really ask. It came up in conversation and I suggested > Ocaml which was immediately shot down. > > > This should be your decision not theirs. They're paying you because > > YOU are the expert in software development. > > I agree, but he pays my salary and if wants to make those decisions > thats his call. Well for me that would be an ethical problem leading to my resignation. I mean, if someone says "Write a function to calculate this in C" its disappointing that they want to waste their money and some of my time -- I'd be looking for a better job, but its their money. But if they say "We need to solve this problem" and then they say "And you have to use these tools" .. I'm out the door because they're simultaneously asking you to take responsibility -- and then denying the freedom of choice that is required to actually be responsible. I've worked with technically aware bosses, but generally its a discussion leading to a reasonable division of responsibility -- eg I can say "Ocaml has these advantages and disadvantages" and the boss can say "Well, this could be pretty serious for us" and it is his job to weight technical factors in a business context. But it is mine, exclusively, to make the final technical decision about how to achieve the outcome required. I have hardly ever written C/C++ code by hand in the last 2 decades: invariably I write a code generator to help meet requirements effectively. Hehe .. some people got suspicious in one job at the perfectly formatted code i was producing .. :) -- John Skaller