variable declaration

[Alex Martelli]

Arthur <ajsiegel at optonline.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 5 Feb 2005 17:00:15 +0100, aleaxit at yahoo.com (Alex Martelli)
> wrote:
> >
> >I consider this one of the worst ideas to have been proposed on this
> >newsgroup over the years, which _IS_ saying something. \
> 
> I would disagree, but only to the extent that nothing that is only a
> request for an option toggle should qualify for this award.  For
> anyone not interested in it's effects, it's business as usual.

You must have lead a charmed life, I think, unusually and blissfully
free from pointy-haired bosses (PHBs).  In the sublunar world that most
of us inhabit, ``optional'' idiocies of this kind soon become absolutely
mandatory -- thanks to micromanagement by PHBs.

For the last few years I've been working as a consultant -- mostly
(thanks be!) for a wonderful Swedish customer whose managers are in fact
great techies, but otherwise for a fair sample of typical development
shops.  Such "fair samples" have weaned me from my own mostly-charmed
blissful life, confirming that the amount of utter stupidity in this
world is REALLY high, and far too much is that is in management
positions.

Now, I've recently had a great offer to work, doing mostly Python, for
another incredibly great firm, and, visa issues permitting, I'll gladly
leave the life of consultants' joys and sorrows behind me again -- I've
spent most of my life working as a full-time employee for a few great
firms, and the last few years have confirmed to me that this fits my
character and personality far better than being a consultant does (just
like the years between my two marriages have confirmed to me that I'm
better suited to be a husband, rather than a roving single... I guess
there's a correlation there!-).  So, I'm not speaking for selfish
reasons: at my soon-to-be employer, techies rule, and optional idiocies
won't matter much.  I _am_ speaking on behalf of maybe half of the
million or so Python programmers in the world, who are NOT so lucky as
to be working in environments free from the blight of micromanagement.


Alex