Ruven Brooks says:
> In the earlier days of the Java craze, we did some system development
> in Java. We now use a mix of C++, Visual Basic, Javascript, VBscript,
> and Perl - but no Java.
> Why not?
And various other things about Java (and COBOL and UML).
Thanks for this insight into the concerns of an industrial software
developer, Ruven.
One question - why are you posting this to the Psychology of Programming
Interest Group? You don't seem to be asking any questions about
psychology of programming, or offering any insights into psychology
of programming.
I certainly appreciate your contributions to the list, and it
is good to have active software engineers who are interested in
what we do, but you seem to be saying that this whole discussion
is futile - language design is completely irrelevant when put
in the context of actual software engineering.
So, what is the PPIG list for, if it is not for discussion of
software engineering? Here is my attempt to summarise the reasons
that people like Brad (and the rest of us) ask these questions:
1. New programming languages get designed from time to time, whether we
like it or not.
2. We can either a) design those languages without any understanding
of the cognitive requirements of the user; or b) try to take the
cognitive requirements of the user into account (of course, along with many
other considerations of computer science and software engineering).
3. For those people who prefer to take the option 2b), the PPIG
community exists to help them with understanding relevant research
and design principles.
4. Once the language is finished, we can a) throw it over the fence
to the users, then move on the next project; or b) evaluate the
success of the new language through observation and measurement.
5. For those people who prefer to take the option 4b), the PPIG
community exists to publish results, and help to develop
appropriate evaluation methods.
Alan
--
--
Alan Blackwell Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/afb21/ Phone: +44 (0) 1223 334418
