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Is It Time for a Hippocratic Oath for Programmers?

Six programming pledges to help with growing from grad to geek to giant
By Joe Winchester
Article Rating:
February 26, 2008 08:30 AM EST
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 24,502

Hippocrates, one of the founding fathers of modern medicine, realized that those who trained to become physicians were not only able to use their skills for good and for progress, but also might be inclined to misuse all they had learned. To protect against such abuses, new grads back in the 4th century B.C. were made to swear they would only use medicine in the best interests of their patients by taking the eponymously named "Hippocratic Oath."

I think that it's about time we had a similar oath for all those who enter into the venerable profession of software engineering. As generations of future geeks walk down to collect their degrees wearing ill-fitting rented robes before proud parents and nervous colleagues, they should clutch a copy of Design Patterns in one hand, raise the other, and chant: Before all gathered here, I FinnBarMcFooBar swear and promise:

Published February 26, 2008 – Reads 24,502
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Joe Winchester

Joe Winchester, Editor-in-Chief of Java Developer's Journal, was formerly JDJ's longtime Desktop Technologies Editor and is a software developer working on development tools for IBM in Hursley, UK.

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Most Recent Comments
Reader 02/28/08 11:58:52 AM EST

True, but this looks like it wasn't really written by a developer, where is the: I will always be on top of the newest advances of technology
6 Pledges 02/16/08 06:36:48 AM EST

Bravo...best list I have seen for a long time!!