Re: Academic research aimed at improving programmer productivity?

From: Edward G. Nilges (spinoza1111_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 01/05/04 

Date: 5 Jan 2004 13:31:07 -0800

gswork@mailcity.com (gswork) wrote in message news:<81f33a98.0401050604.231b742d@posting.google.com>...
> spinoza1111@yahoo.com (Edward G. Nilges) wrote in message news:<f5dda427.0401042202.22a84c3d@posting.google.com>...
> > "Brandon J. Van Every" <try_vanevery_at_mycompanyname@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<bt9sui$4r385$1@ID-207230.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> > > "Edward G. Nilges" <spinoza1111@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> > > news:f5dda427.0401040314.2bf14f49@posting.google.com...
>
> > But if Parkinson's famous law is correct, there may be no solution. As
> > worker bees, we free up time (say by converting from DOS to Windows)
> > only to see as does the roving hiker in Yosemite, more weary miles to
> > walk before we sleep.
>
> There is no 'solution' as such because there is no end state to which
> we are aiming. no 'end of history'. thankfully.
>
> > > What I need from academics, or industry, or someone, are *SOLUTIONS*.
> >
> > I think with all due respect that the Star Trek idea of simply talking
> > to the computer is not on for serious and for mission critical
> > software. The lesson of driving a simple car is apropos.
> >
> > If the technical ideal was indeed a "solution" in which we did not
> > have in some way to think in an orderly fashion about the mastery of
> > the external world and the technical devices which exist in the
> > external world, then by now, surely, we would have...a car we could
> > drive when soused to the gills.
>
> To some, limited,extent, "driving without the driver" is enacted today
> by anti lock brakes, traction control, proximity sensors and other
> automata.

But note that to USE antilock brakes properly you must have read the
manual and you need to forget the old way to brake on ice.

Each individual technical artifact is on my "Kantian" view the ordered
pair that is the artifact and the consciousness of the artifact. If
you generate a new artifact you are responsible then for its
reception. It's never "standalone".

>
> I recall a tv program about car safety in which was explained that as
> cars became safer so people drove more dangerously, to 'make up' for
> some of the gain. Indeed one expert playfully suggested that the best
> safety device would be a spike in each steering wheel, to concentrate
> the drivers mind as to the risks of driving!

People drive faster than before but IF the cars are better engineered,
driving them faster is not dangerous! In fact it is more dangerous to
drive slow when everybody is roaring by you and flipping you off.

>
> > "AI" is pure and simple a demand to be eliminated from technical
> > consciousness while enjoying its benefits, and the demand is a self
> > contradiction; French sociologist describes it as "science without the
> > scientist". Sure, if we board the Moon spacecraft and fly to the moon
> > while getting smashed on Scotch miniatures, we have accomplished the
> > ideal of getting to the moon, of somehow "using" the technology
> > without having to "think".
>
> I like that critique of "science without the scientist" and it's
> partly what the OP appears to want - however i also think he wants
> just the science, not the mechanics - to use a car analogy - to be
> able to change the camshaft, but not to have to know some arcana about
> his '77 pontiac's precise timing set up or somesuch. In programming
> - to know the data structure and algorithm, without havig to fret on
> the "2004 ACME widget interface API (tm)" all day.
>
> At least that's how i read it.
>
> So programming would be difficult, but not because of a sea a details
> to be remembered, but because of the engagement of one's mind with
> what one is actually doing - creating software.
>
> It's not just a programming issue, one could happily forward the
> thesis that flat-packed furniture is "woodwork without the carpenter"
> and also a soulless and ultimately futile avenue !!

Depends on the end user. If I want to be a sort of Saturday afternoon
carpenter I would welcome flat packed furniture and it might get me
interested in REAL carpentry.

The lesson of aerobic exercise, Outward Bound, and helping people do
simple crafts in a rehab is the same. It's that society has so
destroyed our humanity that we never should look down on simple
praxis...nor assume it is disjunct from the most advanced praxis.

We laughed at Japanese production in the 1950s and today we might
laugh at a developer who doesn't use state of the art methods because
he can't afford books. As this ng demonstrates, this laughter retards
scientific progress.

>
> > > I disagree. I think Programming should be Reliable, and Productive. I'm
> > > not interested in that being difficult to accomplish; rather much the
> > > opposite.
> >
> > Why is that? Brain surgery is hard and getting harder even as it is
> > more productive. Why should programming be something so easy to do?
>
> a better example than flat packed furniture !

I don't know if programming as such is that complex. I was terribly
impressed by being able to master compiler design theory such as it
was in 1971 but 15 years later my son took computer science...in high
school. And I have always had the time to be a great programmer (in
terms not of silly rules set by people with anger management issues,
but in terms of paying customers which are what matters in our
society) and to delve into all sorts of other fields.

Whereas my Dad as a neurosurgeon, after retirement, found Hegel
incomprehensible at first because he'd been forced to specialize in
his field for so long. His overspecialization made him narrower than
he could have been.

It's a good idea to "specialize" in brain surgery. Is it a good idea
to "specialize" in programming?

I think that the virtual nature of what we do and the fact that
mistakes can be cleared up so readily makes real programmers take
risks that brain surgeons avoid and it's delayed theoretical
evolution. We need to do the job right the first time as the OP would
have it.

But this end of history would in fact make programming low level.

People hypostatize silly rote rules and fetishize outdated paradigms
because they want something to do that's recognized as "professional".

As my extended quote from Adorno states, a large part of the job of
the research technician, in a society whose elite demands science
without the scientist, is establishing his continued employability and
perhaps this is the real reason for the software crisis. Give good
people (not good technicians, who are all too often badasses) absolute
job security and they can produce, and this has been proven.

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