> However it must be remember that you are on a salary, where as
> consultant-programmers like woods are not.  Programmers need to be
> fed.

True as this is in isolation, as a basis for the argument you are
making, it falls flat on its face.

I spend a nontrivial amount of time playing my piano.  Do I have any
inherent right to any compensation therefor?  No.  No more does woods -
or anyone else - have any inherent right to compensation for effort
invested in writing code.

The right these people *do* have is to, if they choose, stop making
that effort until/unless they get compensation they find satisfactory.

In this society, everyone must find some income from somewhere.  That
"somewhere" does not have to be anything in particular, and it does not
have to be programming.  (I am on a salary, but it's not for
programming.  Indeed, at one of my jobs my job description specifically
states that I do not write code.)

Or, to put it more briefly,

	Programmers need to be fed.

	Programmers do not need to be fed by their programming.  They
	most certainly do not have any right to demand that they be fed
	by their programming.

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
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