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What a terrible article. We "hunch over keyboards, pecking out individual lines of code in esoteric programming languages"? What a cliche! Also, some of us use

by mdemare 19y ago

What a terrible article. We "hunch over keyboards, pecking out individual lines of code in esoteric programming languages"? What a cliche! Also, some of us use Ruby or Python. And we don't talk to users? When there's so much research on interaction design, testing, measuring how users behave? Not that you should always listen to users either (a point completely lost on the author) (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001063.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001063.html). And intentional programming may sound revolutionary, but our solution to that problem are domain specific languages, and those aren't very new either. And if non-programmers can use those DSLs (SQL, Excel) that doesn't make them programmers. Also, it's naive to assume that users could create programs except for the scary part where you communicate with the computer. To program is to think, structured. It means considering all the consequences. x% of programming is error handling (citation needed). Non-programmers cannot think logically enough. The thinking part is what makes programming hard - the arcane API stuff is merely the annoying part - the accidental complexity. And we are getting rid of it, slowly but steadily.

apathy 19y ago
> Non-programmers cannot think logically enough. Or choose not to program, perhaps because there are logically more optimal uses of their time. Be careful how far you tread down this path of discourse.
- mdemare 19y ago
  What I meant was that it takes a certain skill to translate a business problem into something a computer can understand. You need to think extremely logical, rigorous. You have to consider everything that may go wrong. That takes natural aptitude and experience. A minority of non-programmers have the aptitude, and extremely few have the experience. That's what makes programming hard. And that's why this article is bullshit. Programming is not hard because of esoteric programming languages. It's just hard, period.
  - edw519 19y ago
    "certain skill to translate a business problem into something a computer can understand" Absolutely! And that skill includes analysis, not just development. Almost all the best analysis I've ever done has been WITH the skill of competent users, not in spite of them. "A minority of non-programmers have the aptitude" A minority of programmers have the aptitude, too. "That's what makes programming hard" Uh, try hot tarring a roof or digging ditches in 100 degree heat. THAT'S hard. "It's just hard, period." Hard is in the eye of the beholder. I don't think programming is much harder than most other things. It's easy doing it right. It's hard doing it wrong.

by mdemare 19y ago

apathy 19y ago

> Non-programmers cannot think logically enough. Or choose not to program, perhaps because there are logically more optimal uses of their time. Be careful how far you tread down this path of discourse.

mdemare 19y ago
What I meant was that it takes a certain skill to translate a business problem into something a computer can understand. You need to think extremely logical, rigorous. You have to consider everything that may go wrong. That takes natural aptitude and experience. A minority of non-programmers have the aptitude, and extremely few have the experience. That's what makes programming hard. And that's why this article is bullshit. Programming is not hard because of esoteric programming languages. It's just hard, period.
- edw519 19y ago
  "certain skill to translate a business problem into something a computer can understand" Absolutely! And that skill includes analysis, not just development. Almost all the best analysis I've ever done has been WITH the skill of competent users, not in spite of them. "A minority of non-programmers have the aptitude" A minority of programmers have the aptitude, too. "That's what makes programming hard" Uh, try hot tarring a roof or digging ditches in 100 degree heat. THAT'S hard. "It's just hard, period." Hard is in the eye of the beholder. I don't think programming is much harder than most other things. It's easy doing it right. It's hard doing it wrong.