多年前对《代码大全》作者的采访

 今天在搜索《代码大全》作者资料的时候，无意看到了多年前多他的一次采访的摘要。为了练习英语就决定把它翻译下来，可能我翻译的很烂，但我在努力...^_^

红字是我的翻译。

Interview with Steve McConnell by Clay Shannon Abstract:

Clay Shannon 采访 Steve McConnell的摘要:

Steve McConnell, the author of several important programming books, such as "Code Complete", "Rapid Development", "Software Project Survival Guide", and "After the Gold Rush", answers question

Steve McConnell,几本重要编程书籍的作者，如: 《代码大全》,《快速开发》《软件工程生存指南》，《淘金热之后》,回答问题.　　

Interview with Steve McConnell by Clay Shannon

Abstract: Steve McConnell, the author of several important programming books, such as "Code Complete", "Rapid Development", "Software Project Survival Guide", and "After the Gold Rush", answers questions about his current projects

Steve McConnell

BDN: In "After the Gold Rush", you recommend a certification system for software developers. Is there anything new on that front? Has your thinking changed, or are you even more concerned about this now?

在《淘金热之后》这本书中，您推荐软件开发人员认证体系。在哪方面有没有任何新的内容？你的思想改变了吗，或者说你现在更加关注这个了呢？

Steve: Yes, I still recommend voluntary certification as one of several prongs in a comprehensive program to increase the level of professionalism among software developers, development organizations, and the industry at large. I think it''''s easy to get emotional when the topics of certification and licensing come up, and there''''s a lot more smoke than fire in most of the arguments. I also recommend codifying the body of knowledge that makes up software engineering, improving the educational infrastructure, providing more support at the organizational level for improved skills and more support for using good practices, and lots of other steps to improve the industry. Frankly, I don''''t completely understand why people focus on my comments about certification as much as they have. There are lots of pieces to the puzzle, and certification is just one of several pieces.
是的，我仍然推荐自愿性认证作为几个插脚中的一个全面计划，以提高软件开发人员，开发机构，以及整个行业的专业水平.我认为当提到认证和认证发放这个话题的时候很容易激动.并且在大部分的争论中烟雾比火多.我也建议将组成软件工程的主体知识编纂成书籍，以改善教育方面的基础设施，在组织水平提高和使用良好的方法上提供更多的支持,和许多其他的步骤来改善这个行业。坦白的说，我不是很明白为什么人们尽可能多的把注意力放在我关于认证的评论上。有许多解决这个难题的办法，认证只是众多中的一个.
BDN: Do you think this will ever really happen?

你认为这将会在某个时候真的发生吗?

Steve: It already is happening. The IEEE Computer Society launched a Certified Software Development Professional exam about a year ago, which has been well received. The Project Management Institute has had a Project Management Professional certification for many years that is not specifically targeted at software, but which many software project managers have obtained. There are various testing and QA certifications, too. Of course there are numerous other technology-focused certifications that have been around for a long time.

它已经发生了，一年前IEEE(电气和电子学工程师联合会)计算机会发起了一个被认证了的软件开发专业考试，它已经被很好的接受了。项目管理协会已经有一个不是针对软件的项目管理专业认证很多年了，但是很多软件项目获得了这个认证。这也有很多各种各样的测试和QA认证.当然，这还有许多以其他技术为中心的认证很长时间了.

BDN: Are you working on any new books?

您现在在写任何新书吗?

Steve: Yes, I will have a second edition of After the Gold Rush, to be titled Professional Software Development, published in August 2003. I''''m still working on a book on software estimation, though that has been a low priority background task.

是的，我将会出《淘金热之后》的第二版,将命名为《专业软件开发》，于2003年8月出版. 我也在写一本关于软件估算的书，尽管这是一个低优先级的后台任务。,

BDN: Will there be an update of the classic "Code Complete", perhaps with more example Delphi and C# code, pointers on working on N-tier systems, or web services, or any of the technologies which have emerged since you last updated the book?

经典的《代码大全》会有一些更新吗,或许多一些Delphi和 C#代码的例子,一些致力于N-tier系统或web服务，或任何一些你最后一次更新本书之后出现的技术的忠告。

Steve: Yes, but it will be another year before the second edition comes out. I''''m quite pleased that I think about 90-95% of the content of the first edition is still on target 10 years after its initial publication. The specific programming languages used in the examples are starting to make the book look dated, but the underlying principles that the examples illustrate are as applicable as ever. And that really was the whole point of the book in the first place -- there are programming principles that transcend languages and transcend the technologies of the day, and it''''s worth a programmer''''s time to learn what those principles are. The fact that so much of Code Complete is still relevant 10 years later really proves the point.
是的，但是第二版的出版还得需要一年，我非常高兴的是我认为第一版90~95%的内容在它初次出版之后10年后仍然会很实用。例子使用的特定的编程语言开始是这本书看起来陈旧了，但是那些例子所说明的根本原则在任何时候都适用。并且那确实是处于本书所有观点的首位—超越语言和超越当前技术的编程原则，这些原则是非常值得一个程序员花时间学习的。事实上《代码大全》里这么多内容在十年后仍然有价值将会证明这个观点。
BDN: Where do you live, exactly? If you are not native to that area, where are you originally from?

你确切的住在哪里？如果你不是在那个地方出生的，你又来自哪里呢？

Steve: I live in the Seattle area, in the shadows of both Boeing and Microsoft. Both of those companies have very strong software development cultures, but cultures that are stylistically at opposite ends of the spectrum. I think it''''s been beneficial to me to be forced to understand how two companies can be so different and yet still both be so successful.

我住在西雅图，在波音和微软的阴影下。这两个公司都有着很强的软件开发文化，但是文化在光谱上有着相反的风格。我认为这有利于迫使自己去领会如何两个如此不同的公司又都如此成功。

BDN: How did you get started in programming (How were you introduced to it, when did you realize you wanted to pursue it as a profession)?

你是如何开始变成的呢（你是怎么知道它的，什么时候你认识到你想把它作为一个职业来做呢）？

Steve: I originally took programming classes in college because I thought they were easy and because I didn''''t know what I wanted to do when I graduated. I thought if I took one class a term I could get a job as a programmer when I graduated that would allow me to pay the bills while I figured out what I really wanted to do. Basically, that''''s what I did, and I spent the first couple years out of college trying to figure out what I really wanted to do. One morning I woke up and realized that I was *already* doing what I wanted to do -- programming.

我起初在大学里修编程课程因为我认为他们很简单，并且因为我不知道我毕业后干什么。我想如果我学一个学期的课程并在毕业后得到一个程序员的工作，那将使我能够支持我想做的事情当我想起来的时候。基本上那就是我所做的，毕业后我花一些年尽力去想想我到底想做什么。一天早晨醒来我发现我已经在做我想做的事情了—编程。
BDN: How many years experience do you have as a programmer?

你作为一个程序员有多少年的经验了？

Steve: I''''ve been working in the software industry for 19 years.

我已经在软件行业工作了19年了。

BDN: What languages do you work with? Which ones do you currently utilize?

 

你工作都使用哪些语言？你现在使用那一种？

Steve: I''''ve done most of my programming in C and Visual Basic.

我使用C和Visual Basic编写了我大部分的程序.

BDN: Would you recommend a career in programming to young people today?

今天你会给年轻人推荐一个编程方面的职业吗？

Steve: Yes.

是的。

BDN: What courses would you recommend they take? What languages/technologies should they key on?

你将推荐他们学习哪些课程？他们应该关注哪些语言和技术呢?

Steve: I would recommend that a young person think hard about enrolling in one of the many undergraduate software engineering degree programs that has sprung up in the past 5 years. I would expressly not focus on languages/technologies. I think the programs that focus on software engineering generally tend to focus on more long-lasting principles, and those will be what serve a programmer for a long chunk of his or her career.
我将建议年轻人努力思考关于学习众多成立5年以上的大学生软件工程学位课程中的一个。我会特意告诉他们不要把语言和技术作为兴趣中心。我认为以软件工程为中心的程序通常会倾向于更多支持的原则，并且那些将会是支持一个程序员他或她事业的一长块。
BDN: Which software project/product that you have participated in are you most proud of?

你参加的软件项目/产品中哪一个是你最自豪的?

Steve: Obviously, I''''m proud of my books. I wrote most of the code for SPC Estimate Professional 2.0, which won a Software Development magazine productivity award. I''''m proud of that work because I think it showed that I''''m not just writing about software from an academic perspective, but when I apply the principles I''''ve written about the results are literally award quality. I worked on Windows 3.1 on True Type, which was very cool technology for its day. I''''m also proud of work I did on some vertical market applications that are less well known.

很明显，我为我的书自豪。我为SPC Estimate Professional 2.0写的大部分代码赢得了软件卡开发杂志的生产力奖，我为那些工作自豪，因为我认为它表明了我不仅仅是从学术角度上写软件，但当我应用原则写出来的结果真正的是非常优质的。我工作在Windows 3.1的True Type，那时候是非常酷的技术。我还为我做的不很知名的垂直市场应用做的哪些工作自豪。
BDN: What project[s] are you currently working on?

你现在致力于什么项目?

Steve: My focus the past few years has been on building and running my company, Construx Software. I wear the hats of both CEO and Chief Software Engineer at Construx, and we''''ve been producing many things that I think have the potential to be extremely helpful to the industry. We''''ve produced a professional development ladder that both individuals and organizations can use to provide meaningful, structured career paths for most software professionals including programmers, testers, analysts, and project managers. We''''ve produced a software engineering framework called CxOne that provides numerous tools that software professionals can use to jumpstart and accelerate their process improvement efforts. Many of these resources are downloadable from our website at www.construx.com.

我在集中注意力于我已经建立并经营了很多年了的公司，Construx Software.我兼CEO和首要软件工程师两职.我们已经生产了很多的产品，我认为它们有这个潜力对工业极其有用。我们生产了一个既适用于个人又适用于组织的软件开发阶梯可以用来为大部分软件专业人士包括程序员，测试师，分析师和项目经理提供有意义的，结构化的职业生涯。我们还生产了一个叫做CxOne的软件工程框架，它提供了许多软件专业人士可以用来助推和加速他们的进程改善工作的工具。这些资源许多都可以从我们的网站www.construx.com下载.

BDN: What is the name of your businss?

您的公司的名字是什么？

Steve: Construx Software. www.construx.com.

Construx Software. www.construx.com

BDN: If you weren''''t a programmer, what do you think you''''d be?

如果你不是个程序员，你人会你将会是什么？

Steve: I think it would be cool to be a civil engineer. You''''d get to build roads, bridges, dams. You''''d get to sit in those huge earth moving trucks. You''''d get to use dynamite. How can you beat that?

我想会是一个很酷的软件工程师。你将会接触修路，桥梁，大坝.你将会做到哪些巨大的地球移动卡车上，你将会适用炸药。你怎能击败呢？

BDN: What is your favorite programming book?

你最喜欢编程书籍是什么？
Steve: Maybe Psychology of Computer Programming by Gerald Weinberg.

可能是Gerald Weinberg 写的《Psychology of Computer Programming》。

BDN: Steve, thank you for your time, thoughtful answers, and your great books (especially Code Complete).

Steve,谢谢您的时间，深思熟虑的答案，和你伟大的书籍(特别是《代码大全》).

This interview took place via email April 2003

这次采访是2003年4月通过电子邮件进行的.