Howie Goodell writes
>This
>experience suggested an analogy: your Access programmers are not
>Computer Scientists or even Software Engineers; they are high-tech
>tradesmen.
That's a striking analagy. I think that 'who are end-users, what do they
know, how do they work, how do they learn' would be a very good question
to research. (Obviously everyone has their own interests but for me
personally, I'm more interested in that than in trying to define
necessary and sufficient criteria for what activities constitute
pogramming.)
As it happens I'm part of a group that will be researching improved
end-user tools (see http://www.CS.ORST.EDU/~grother/vptestdebug.html) so
it's very relevant. What can we assume about skills, work practices,
background, exchange of information with each other? Do they work singly
or together? etc.
Can anyone help me by mentioning any useful research in this area?
There's a spreadsheet study by Bonnie Nardi, of course, and there's a
study by David Hendry and myself that was inspired by hers, but neither
really looked at the points that Howie was making about standards,
certification, etc. So: what do we know about users of Access, LabView,
VB, and other systems where there's a significant community of people
using the tool to do paid-for, responsible work, akin to 'putting a
recreation room over your garage', as howie puts it?
Cheers
Thos
Thomas Green
Preferred postal address:
27 Allerton Park | http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~thomas.green/
Leeds LS7 4ND, UK | also at:
fax +44 (0) 113 226 2751 | Computer-Based Learning Unit
tel +44 (0) 113 226 6687 | University of Leeds
