Re: [xml-dev] Engineering versus Science, Anecdote versus Evidence... [W

[John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org>]

Michael Kay scripsit:

> But all this is an indulgence; it doesn't pay the wages. It's what a  
> good craftsman does, but not what he is paid to do. The day job is  
> engineering.

Not an indulgence, but necessary for the self-esteem that every good
craftsman must have in order to practice the craft at all.  I believe it
is Fred Brooks who says that craftsmen always insist on far more quality
than the market will pay for.

Open-source code allows that craft practice to be translated into peer
repute, which is the sweetest of all possible rewards.

-- 
You are a child of the universe no less         John Cowan
than the trees and all other acyclic            http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
graphs; you have a right to be here.            cowan@ccil.org
  --DeXiderata by Sean McGrath