By definition, professionals get paid and amateurs do not. There is no other literal distinction. However, in capitalist cultures (like yours and mine) the words have evolved to imply more. People think of professionals as proficient, expert, of a higher quality. Conversely they think of amateurs as being of a lower quality, worth less if not worthless. This is, I believe, a sad circumstance.

Words tend to move. e.g. "several" used to mean "many" now it implies "a few" as in "we will ship in several weeks"

I can agree with you that amateur = incompetent is rather unfortunate and you may see in another post here that I prefer "hobbyist"

If any competent amateur has been offended by my use of the word "amateur" in the sense that not being paid means incompetent, please accept my apologies. I have, in this thread used "amateur" and "bungling amateur" and see that if it is seen as meaning "not paid" my words are in some cases inappropiate. I am strictly using the word in the meaning "not knowing"




All of that being said, my original point was to observe that the hubrous of inexperience lends one to attack with joy the challenge of designing a circuit to replace the MAX232

That would be absolutotally wonderful if it was done adhering to the RS232 standard. I would consider that a major (albeit worthless) achievement.

What I am putting in the bungling amateur category is a "MAX232 replacement circuit" that happen to work in a specific instance and then is published as a universal solution.

Erik