Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

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What the doctors think

Author:
Posted:	8/24/2000; 12:20:47 AM
Topic:	Next survey: Are you an open source developer?
Msg #:	20070 (In response to 19977)
Prev/Next:	20069 / 20071

OK, so this is just a bit out of the scope of the proposed survey, but I think it's important in the larger scope, i.e. the moral ground free software programmers claim. In many ways it comes down to professionalism.

One day I read Something by Phil Greenspun that hovered around this issue, and he referred to professionalism in medicine, as Dave did in his recent piece. Living in a nest of doctors most of my life I well understood the comparison.

During a discussion about this issue with one of these doctors I was pointed to some articles in the New England Journal of Medicine (here and here). I think articles like these should be required reading for software developers right now.

I'd also like to hear what civil and aerospace engineers have to say on the topic. Can you patent a *method* of building bridges? Should you? What do you do if the company you works for wants you to?.

James

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