[Year 12 Its] Re: [Yr11 Information Technology] ProgrammingAwards2006: PD Registrations

[Con Zymaris]

On Tue, Jun 06, 2006 at 11:42:41AM +1000, gavin at vitta.org.au wrote:
> Hi Con,
> 

Hiya Gavin.

> VITTA is certainly keen to support programming competitions in other
> languages - if you find us a company who is as willing to provide
> financial, software, and other support as Microsoft have been for a
> competition dealing with PHP, C, Python or Perl, then please let me know.

If we were given $23 million in cash by the Victorian government, we'd be
more than happy to fund such a venture. Wouldn't you? ;-)

> 
> While certainly not the only language used in secondary schools, Visual
> Basic is certainly a prominent one as it is easy to learn and can be

VB is a prominent one because of various forces at play making it so. I'm
sure you'll follow my reasoning that if DET pushed Python or PHP as much
as it pushed Microsoft developer tools, Python would be just as big.

> utilised in quite powerful ways.

Many languages are easy to learn. Few teach you as many poor programming
habits as VB. And I should know. I've written more commercial VB code than
anyone on this list ;-)

> 
> As Adrian has said, I think we should all be supportive of any project
> which attempts to foster an interest in ICT (and not only does that, but
> rewards excelling students quite generously).

I'd prefer to be supportive of an inclusive competition, not one so 
tightly bound to the Microsoft fiefdom.

Anyway, I think I've made my point, so will stop beating the proverbially
deceased horse.

Thanks for your patience.

Cheers,

Con Zymaris

- CEO, Cybersource Pty. Ltd.
- Director, Open Source Industry Australia, Limited.
- Convenor, Open Source Victoria (A Government-funded industry cluster.)
-- 
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Con Zymaris <conz at cyber.com.au> Level 4, 10 Queen St, Melbourne, Australia 
Cybersource: Australia's Leading Linux and Open Source Solutions Company 
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