On 4/10/99 at 2:30 pm, Fabrice Retkowsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> It seems more interesting to
> think in terms of tools and/or environment rather than programming
> language. And one can apply the principles of the Cognitive Dimensions
> to a programming environment or tool (viscosity, early commitment,
Yes indeed, the cognitive dimensions framework is supposed to be applicable to
_all_ information tools. Including UML, for example.
Chris Douce points out that the surrounding context and culture matter too, and
others have made similar points in various ways (including some of Ruven
Brooks's points about Java). I agree very strongly and regret that at present
researchers have so little to offer. However, HCI as a whole is getting
interested in this problem, and maybe somebody can see how to import and
specialise some of their contextual work into the programming/software design
domain.
Any offers? If anyone's doing that, please tell us! (Bonnie Nardi, are you
lurking out there?)
The same could be said for the graphical/affective impact. For certain
people - probably not software engineers - the excitement of immediate
response (what Nargaret Burnett calls liveness) makes a great difference,
and the visual design of a system does too. Does anyone out there have
a handle on such things?
--- A little note of reminder, if I may be so bold: this group contains
representatives of many types of person, including practising software
engineers, people designing environments for children, people designing
environments for end-users, etc. Since PPIG is about trying to form
generalisable principles, we should be assiduous in not thinking of our
own group as in any way special or more important. It's always useful
to know what aspects are particularly relevant to one type of user, but
that doesn't mean we should ignore other aspects, if they're relevant to
other users. Our goal is a high-level approach that can be specialised
for particular cases.
At least, that's what I think it is - maybe that's something else to discuss!
:-)
Thomas
----
T. R. G. Green also at:
preferred postal address: Computer-Based Learning Unit
Oriel House, 27 Allerton Park, University of Leeds
Leeds LS7 4ND, U.K. Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.
0113-226-6687 (tel)
0113-226-2751 (fax)
http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~thomas.green
----
T. R. G. Green also at:
preferred postal address: Computer-Based Learning Unit
Oriel House, 27 Allerton Park, University of Leeds
Leeds LS7 4ND, U.K. Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.
0113-226-6687 (tel)
0113-226-2751 (fax)
http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~thomas.green
