RP>When people think of "programs" they tend to think of Word Perfect,
RP>Excel, or Corel Draw. But the majority of software never appears on
RP>a store shelf. Most of it is written either in-house or contracted
RP>out to a consultant, who writes a very specific, vertical application
RP>tailored to one company's requirements.
Yes, but this is a couple guys writing for a company of
hundreds....
RP>Engineers, researchers, and accountants often write their own 
PR>programs, the reason being it is much easier to teach a chemical 
PR>engineer to program, for example, than it is to teach a programmer 
PR>chemical engineering.
This is absolutely true, but this is a very small percentage
of the workforce; a researcher or engineer is very likely to
be a programmer; that's pretty much a requirement for them.
RP>A whole other class of programs are those embedded in virtually
RP>every electronic appliance sold today. Those are real programs in
RP>your microwave oven and VCR, and someone had to sit down and write
RP>them.
Sure, but it isn't a 1:1 ratio... A few programmers work on
the code, then it gets EPROM'd or FLASHRAM'd to x million
appliances...
RP>Sure, not all of them will be programmers, but many more than you
RP>think will do at least a _little_ programming (you may recall I
RP>talked about embedded languages inside an application; even creating
RP>a spreadsheet can be considered to be programming).
Ok... Let's work it this way... I agree that there is a heck
of a lot of programming going on, much of it invisible (or
nonobvious anyway)...  What percent of the population do you
think this constitutes?  Or what percent of the workforce
if you prefer?
It seems to me that in a given company, for example, the 
ratio is probably one programmer to at least 10 non.  This
is even accepting the concept of spreadsheets as an example
of programming (which, by and large, isn't the case; most
spreadsheeting involves calculation formulae, not such
things as subprograms, subroutines, "do" loops, etc).  Heck,
when I was at IBM the ratio was at LEAST that and probably
more like 1:20 (this was some time ago; I have no doubt that
the ratio has improved).  Texaco Research was probably 1:2, 
and is a very atypical situation, as it IS a research 
facility...
RP>I wish there were some way to shake this myth that there are two 
RP>dozen pointy-headed geeks with greasy glasses and good at math but 
RP>with limited social skills churning out every program in the world.
There isn't?!?  Aren't they housed next to the group that
churns out all those gems of personal wisdom (you know,
"they" as in "they say that...")?        ;-)
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