RE: ::scr Re: Cognitive Friction

["Simon Kinahan" <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> We write programs that follow a methodology - there's nothing else a
> program can do - to perform a task. As the task gets more complicated
> we add more and more gotchas and exceptions - we try and distill our
> knowledge into code.

Indeed we do - at least for the things we expect the computer to do the same
way we would. But we don't have a algorithm, or even a methodology, for how
to program, except in some very limited and specific cases. Where people
have tried to do such a thing, there's always a box in the diagram or a
variable in the equation with some obscure name that comes down to beign
"the hard bit". Ultimately, being a Real Programmer these days - rather than
just churning out the same boilerplate again and again - means reflecting on
how to do something. We don't really know how we do that, so we cannot
automate it. This is were the snake oil salesmen at Rational and all the
others make their money: people "managing" software engineering fear the
fact that noone really understands how it is done. They want to be able to
hire bozos, turn the handle, and produce perfect working software.

Simon