Leo Tohill

Last month, in a brief outburst of creative thought (some would say crazy thinking), I proposed to TeamSybase that the PBL has outlived its usefulness and should be ditched. I had a few arguments that sounded pretty good to me, and I think I responded pretty effectively to the few counterpoints that were raised. So when John Olson, editor-in-chief of this fine magazine, asked me to expand on these thoughts, I jumped at the chance. After all, I felt sure of my position and already had an outline. It seemed like a straightforward job. Like programming, writing reveals the details of an issue. There’s quite a difference between the idea and the implementation. As I developed this article, my arguments improved in number and strength. But at the same time, I realized that what I was proposing implied more than programmer convenience. While the technical changes are str... (more)

Eliminating the PBL

Last month, in a brief outburst of creative thought (some would say crazy thinking), I proposed to TeamSybase that the PBL has outlived its usefulness and should be ditched. I had a few arguments that sounded pretty good to me, and I think I responded pretty effectively to the few counterpoints that were raised. So when John Olson, editor-in-chief of this fine magazine, asked me to expand on these thoughts, I jumped at the chance. After all, I felt sure of my position and already had an outline. It seemed like a straightforward job. Like programming, writing reveals the details ... (more)