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"People understand what they can see. If a programmer cannot see what a program is doing, she can't understand it." I think about this all the time. In my area
by djmips 6y ago
"People understand what they can see. If a programmer cannot see what a program is doing, she can't understand it."
I think about this all the time. In my area I see a lot of programmers who don't do a great job at writing optimal code but it's not because they are lazy or stupid but because they cannot understand something they cannot see. This is why some kind of appropriate visual idiom for efficient core usage and time spent is a necessity in any project that cares about efficiency. I still don't think we have found the best visual idiom but we have to keep trying to make obvious visually, the way a computer really works.
- danybittel 6y agoI don't think there is a "best" way of doing it, it depends a lot of what the program is doing. Sometimes it's a tree, a graph, a list, rich text and so on. I think it would really be helpful if it was dead simple, to setup a visualization of a class or a group of classes, directly in code (as part of the PL) and have them update in real time. Right now it's "execute, dump graphviz code, drop it into graphiz". Then hopefully every class has a visualization just like every class (should) have Tests. Right now almost all of my classes have a "string Debug() const", method, to see it's content.
- zby 6y agoWell - the quote is not true. People who are blind can also understand things. Visual is only one way of understanding.