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From: peter@nmti.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: A new approach to software engineering!
Message-ID: <id.440G1.7PA@nmti.com>
Sender: peter@nmti.com (peter da silva)
Organization: Network/development platform support, NMTI
References: <3dljip$7vq@news.worldlink.com> <3dnops$n85@news2.delphi.com> <D1H1pF.CCn@tyrell.net>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 1994 03:34:12 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.misc:19767 comp.programming:13706 comp.software-eng:29034 comp.ai:26139 comp.ai.philosophy:24146

In article <D1H1pF.CCn@tyrell.net>, John Stauffer <jcs@tyrell.net> wrote:
> I am beginning to feel that all application development is really language
> development, at some level or another, with the actions that a user can
> take being the language's syntactic elements.

That's nicely put. Apple seems to have seen that early on and enforced a
uniform style guide with an object-verb syntax (you *select* objects, then
act on them)... other pointer driven interfaces have often been command
oriented some of the time and object-verb other times.

One reason people have problems with the "vi" editor, is because it doesn't
seem to have a consistent input language. I personally believe that this is
more perception than reality, but this isn't the place to go into that and
it's the perception that counts.

> : I recently had a similar discussion with a collegue of mine who chastised 
> : me by telling me that end-users can be educated to do more of their own 
> : programming, and my response is "why should an end-user (or domain 
> : expert) be required to learn how to program?"

My response is, "why should I have to learn how to drive?"

Actually, that's not as flip as it seems. I do not like driving. I resisted
learning to drive until I had lived in Houston (a VERY car-oriented town)
for some years. Learning to drive... learning to program... really does make
a significant difference in ones lifestyle and computing environment
respectively.

Still, as a fan of public transport, I must to be consistent support interfaces
that *seem* less like programming...
-- 
Peter da Silva                                            `-_-'
Network Management Technology Incorporated                 'U`
1601 Industrial Blvd.     Sugar Land, TX  77478  USA
+1 713 274 5180                       "Hast du heute schon deinen wolf umarmt?"
