Re:Awaiting the Day When Everyone Writes Software
by ken on Friday February 29, 2008 @07:01PM
(#126424)
This sounds like exactly why this could be a great tool.
Programmers work faster when their edit-compile-run loop is shorter. Businesses generate applications faster when the spec-implement-try loop is shorter. If they can remove the programmer from the loop, and force the manager to put his spec straight into the computer (which will promptly show him what's missing and what's contradictory and what makes no sense), that sounds pretty cool to me.
It's true that business users don't know what they want. (We programmers don't know what we want, either; this is why we have REPLs and partial compilation and fast workstations.) Simonyi is not assuming business users will suddenly gain foresight. He's assuming they will never have foresight, and designing a system to make the inevitable "oh, that's not right, go try again" part go much faster.
Programmers work faster when their edit-compile-run loop is shorter. Businesses generate applications faster when the spec-implement-try loop is shorter. If they can remove the programmer from the loop, and force the manager to put his spec straight into the computer (which will promptly show him what's missing and what's contradictory and what makes no sense), that sounds pretty cool to me.
It's true that business users don't know what they want. (We programmers don't know what we want, either; this is why we have REPLs and partial compilation and fast workstations.) Simonyi is not assuming business users will suddenly gain foresight. He's assuming they will never have foresight, and designing a system to make the inevitable "oh, that's not right, go try again" part go much faster.