> This is only because you live in a world (ie, academia) > here the aim is to be creative.
Of course, there are quite a range of professions that we do identify as being 'creative', and many of those professions use programming as a tool. I've had a number of interesting experiences creating new programming languages for use in those professions (architecture, choreography, visual arts, sculpture), and have even presented this research at PPIG: Blackwell, A. and Collins, N. (2005). The programming language as a musical instrument. In Proceedings of PPIG 2005, pp. 120-130. http://www.ppig.org/papers/17th-blackwell.pdf So an interesting question is whether this kind of research can have beneficial spin-offs for 'regular' programming work of the kind Derek describes. We might consider the case of Smalltalk, which was created primarily as a medium for creative expression by children. It turned out to be of quite general broader value, as did the bitmapped displays, window and icon GUI, and other things developed to support Smalltalk. The Smalltalk innovations seem to have had business value, because people in many professions actually perceive their work as creative, and they quite enjoy having 'creative' tools with which to do it. Alan -- Alan Blackwell Reader in Interdisciplinary Design, University of Cambridge Further details from www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~afb21/ -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).
