jrfinkel - Professional Profile

I have been developing software since 1984, when I began working with Digital Equipment Corporation. In 1990, I started by own independent company, Systems by Design of Illinois.

I was trained using a language (Pascal) that was designed (by Niklaus Wirth) to teach programming concepts of data structures and algorithms. My early practical experience was for a company that demanded high-quality, documented code. We built large systems using DEC's VAX/VMS Pascal.

Because of this experience, I am particularly uncomfortable with the fact that C++, which is agruably one of the worst languages ever created, is being used to teach introductory computer classes.

I am also uncomfortable with badly written documentation, which is often confounded by the introduction of material that is extraneous to the point being explained. This makes the learning and practical use of new development tools more difficult than desired.

In the current horrendous economic climate, I devote most of my time and energy to non-profit organizations, living off the money saved from doing work in the corporate world when the business climate was more favorable.