IMHO one should feel happy with the way she/he reaches her/his goal. I'm
happy in my darkroom where I calm down, computers just make me nervous. Both
digital and traditional printing have their benifits and shortly the
discussion about which is the best became obsolete and very boring. If you
don't like computers, well go to your real darkroom and enjoy what you're
doing and stop wasting your and everybody's time arguing. Just follow your
guts. So if your friend wants a darkroom, let her persuade those people,
maybe they went digital meanwhile ;-)

Anytime you can get away from a computer is great argument for a
darkroom. In my eyes I feel that working in the darkroom is a relaxing
experience (at least with b/w). Sitting in front of a computer
doctoring up photos is fun, but it just doesn't have the same feeling
or experience.

At this time, I think there's really no real difference in the two
mediums (other than one is a dying art with hard to find or recently
canceled supplies). It's whatever makes you feel good about your art.

Paul, there are many semantics and personal feeligs involved in how one goes
about creating an image. I think the most important thing here is the
artistic point. Some painters use oils, some acrylic, and some prefer
watercolors. well, watercolors are a different style, but the choice of
acrylic versus oil is a personal one.

Actual darkroom production of photographic prints, whether color or B&W is a
tradition which an artist should not have to forgo. That said, I saw
comments in recent communications from the photo school at Rochester
Institute of Technology that todays students would not need to learn how to
use or develop silver halide materials because of the transition to digital.
I am an alumni of RIT, and I don't understand how they can ignore well over
100 years of photographic history, and consider graduating students with no
knowledge of that history or materials which are still used today.

If your friend is persueing a knowledge of photography, I don't see how
someone can tell her to ignore traditional materials in favor of digital.
I've done it both ways, and as Jan and Nathan point out, there is a special
feeling most of us get being creative in a darkroom. Manipulating images on
a computer is a totally different way of working, and does not give me the
same feeling of accomplishment.

As for retouching prints, or worse yet, portrait negatives, thee is good
reason that John says he hasn't touched his Adams retouching machine in 6
years. It is so much easier to correct blemishes, soften lines under eyes,
and do other restoration on a computer.