Permit me a little selective quoting...
Gregory Woodhouse wrote:
All software is complex and difficult to manage, and user interfaces
are really nothing more than a convenient scapegoat. What we /really/
need is the capability to work at a higher level of abstraction, and
stop trying to build every new tool or application "from the ground up".
My models... :-)
The very act of modelling software or business processes means that
you're working at a higher level of abstraction than the implementation.
One of the reasons, from my point of view, that software is so
interesting, is that very often the modelling is done in the code.
Trying to tease out the inherent model is what's otherwise known as
"reverse-engineering". The code-to-model process as opposed to
model-to-code-generation...
Working with models permits the abstraction necessary to work
"machine-free". Then, and this is of course in the ideal, once the
models are agreed and all that, we look for the best way to implement them.
For some really fascinating work on this, you might want to dig around
in the OMGs MDA - Model Driven Architecture. It's "controversial"
precisely because it works at that higher level of abstraction... and
basically considered to be a "waste of time" when everyone would be
better off doing stuff...
I fear that many of us have bought into the idea that change is
inherently bad, and that rejecting innovation is the key to success in
software. /That/ is what I am arguing against.
Try Googling "Hot Stove Effect". There a number of research papers
coming out of the business schools that address exactly this issue, or
it's converse... They make good reading.
Cheers,
Stephen
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