[repost from blog] – This is really spot on. I would like to refer you to a couple of things that come to mind that you might find useful for advancing this lin

[repost from blog] – This is really spot on. I would like to refer you to a couple of things that come to mind that you might find useful for advancing this line of thinking. (1) I saw a talk by Jonathan Edwards that was very much along the lines of what you wrote here: http://alarmingdevelopment.org/?p=5 http://alarmingdevelopment.org/?p=5 (2) Second, Christopher Alexander’s early work on patterns in architecture and urban design have been referenced quite a bit in computer science, but seldom is his ‘magnum opus’, a four-book series on the ‘nature of order’, referenced. These texts move far beyond the early work. You would do well to have a look at the first book, which tries to establish an objective theory of design not based on scientific principles: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+nature+of+order&x=0&y=0 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3D... (3) You might be interested to read some discussion on the history of music programming languages. Max/MSP and Pd, both dataflow-oriented, offer what I would estimate to be an order of magnitude of productivity gain for certain tasks in building one-off multi-media systems. They’re a bit like a UNIX for real-time multi-media + control signals. This essay reminded me a bit of the anti-academic and organic approach that Miller Puckette took in building them despite being trained as a mathematician and developing them in an academic setting. This serves as a good lesson that successful software isn’t necessarily designed by having good principles, but rather the proper environment, namely, one with energy and a need. Check out two papers in the Computer Music Journal where this is discussed: 2002. Miller Puckette, “Max at Seventeen”. Computer Music Journal, 26(4) 2002. Eric Lyon, “Dartmouth Symposium on the Future of Computer Music Software: A Panel Discussion”. Computer Music Journal, 26(4) Generally, computer music is one of the more interesting fields to look at if you’re interested in ascertaining the future of HCI, computer science and psychological research since from the beginning they have not been accorded the luxury of forgoing certain constraints, such as that everything must happen in real-time, data must be of a certain resolution (in time and ‘space’) and that non-tech-savvy practitioners from other fields (musicians) must be able to use the tools as experts. -- Oh, and I would add that if you are not familiar with Bill Buxton’s career, it may prove interesting reading for you. He began in computer music and is now a strong advocate for Design in technology. One insight that he often emphasizes, which I don’t claim is his originally, is that new technologies take 20-30 years to be adopted. According to this view, new ideas in software design should expect to lie dormant for at least 20 years, echoing what @Ben wrote above.