Break the program free from its representation? How, other than by transforming one representation to another? Actually, certain transformations might yield great benefits, in perception or execution!
On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 7:25 PM, David Goehrig <d...@nexttolast.com> wrote: > > Most of the problems with existing programming practice, I would contend, > stems from an insufficient appreciation of spoken words. > > I had the misfortune of breaking my wrist this winter while working on a > tight deadline. I had to dictate not only several thousand lines of code, > but the tests, debugger commands, and system commands and configs. It is a > painful experience even with a competent peer as your hands. > Bandwidth constrained? Don't our visual faculties, if we are sighted, allow us to grok so much more than oral encoding in aural medium? TV vs. radio? Until we break the program free from its representation, we will not have > tools sufficient to the task. > Break free? How? I'll paraphrase Mashall McLuhan's "the medium is the message"[1] and assert, similarly, "the representation *is* the program!" More accurately, the representation is one tangible realization of some abstract program (or family of programs). Indeed, some representations are more apt than others, when it comes to our "understanding" of them. And certain representations may be more space or time efficient in certain computing machines. [[Just imagine: Hey prof, I know we can't bring electronic gadgets into this exam room...but since you've provided paper and pencils, would it be OK if I tear up one of those scratchpads and build a Turing Machine on which I can then run some calculations? Oh, and I'll need some extra time, please!]] I sat in a fascinating presentation at the 1991 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (Charlottesville, VA)... I don't recall the topic/authors just now... That presentation led me to understand -- more clearly -- how the the choice of representation [think, re-presentation?] can literally make or break our ability to perceive (decode) the abstract thing represented (as a concrete encoding of a program or whatever). Now, just for grins... if "the last language" were message-based, we could have some fun proclaiming, "the message is the medium!"[2,3] ;-) And that's how we interact in this forum... isn't it? Cheerful and sleepy now... --KR ;-) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message, "meaning that the form of a medium<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_%28communication%29>embeds itself in the message <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message>, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived." [2] "The Message is the Medium: A Reply to Sven Birkerts and The Gutenberg Elegies" http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/aandc/gutenbrg/wschirev.ht, Originally published in *Chicago Review* Vol. 41, No. 4 (Winter 1995-96). And don't miss the reply[3]... [3] The Electric Word, Sven Birkerts replies to "The Message Is the Medium" in TheAtlantic Digital Culture, http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/aandc/gutenbrg/exchange.htm ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........
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