Apparently Bill Gates gave a quote to the effect he used to
dumpster dive for the book "Programmers at Work: Interviews With 19 Programmers
Who Shaped the Computer Industry" printed by Microsoft Press.
I think I'm
going to see if I can get a copy of that just to see if the quote is
real.
There's no need to send money to Microsoft Press; I have
that book. (I bought it many years ago, mostly because I used to work for/with
Jonathan Sachs and Ray Ozzie, who are in it.)
I didn't see the words
"dumpster dive", but this appears on page 83:
INTERVIEWER: Is
studying computer science the best way to prepare to be a
programmer?
GATES: No, the best way to prepare is to write programs, and
to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to
the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of
their operating system.
You've got to be willing to read other people's
code, then write your own, then have other people review your code. You've got
to want to be in this incredible feedback loop where you get the world-class
people to tell you what you're doing wrong.
—
Programmers at Work, by Susan Lammers (1986)
I think it's also
important to study computer science, and
something else (typesetting, quantum
field theory, Chinese grammar...) depending upon what your program does. Other
than that, I agree with his words but still feel like slapping him for saying
them.
— Programmer in Chief
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