I'm not exactly clear what "end user programming" is. If a physicist,
who would strongly object to being called a programmer, writes a 15,000
line program in FORTRAN 2000 to solve a physics problem, is that end
user programming?
If I write an Excel script to manage my expenses, is that end user
programming? [I am employed writing programs for other people to use.]
I would argue that both of these are prefectly good examples of end user
programming. If my examples are acceptable, then end user programming
really has nothing to do with issues such as specification versus
design, etc. It merely has to do with who the customer is.
If, on the other hand, end user programming can only be done by people
who have no experience in programming in conventional notations, then
the main thrust of end user programming must be to reduce the amount
of learning that has to be done before useful work can be performed.
If this is so, it would be interesting to characterize what things
a professional programmer absolutely needs to know that an end-user
programmer doesn't need to learn.
Ruven Brooks
