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From: edrbtsn@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Ed Robertson)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Is Programming R&D or Production?
Message-ID: <48951@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 27 Jun 90 14:54:58 GMT
References: <102100011@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <5241@stpstn.UUCP> <7595@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Lines: 32

+-Concerning Is Programming R&D or Production?, Lawrence Detweiler said:
| 
| >Actually I've always thought the best analogy for software development
| >is movie production. It shares many similarities.
| 
| If software development is like movie making, I have had the thought 
| that  programs are exactly opposite to Hollywood sets.  A set has a 
| flashy, majestic appearance from the front, but from behind there is 
| nothing substantial.  In a program, few have any idea of the subtle 
| and  magnificent webs of intricate interactions that lie between the 
| choreography of twirling electrons in its wires to the parade of 
| photons meeting our eyes. ...  A program is an inside-out set.

Unfortuantely, I've seen many "programs" (perhaps they could be called
"systems", but to use either word is to defame those professionals who
are true programers and system-builders) which remind me exactly of
Hollywood sets.  These things are "database applications" written,
without proper design, for PCs.

What has happened is that a variety of tools, such as dBASE and Paradox,
have nice "interface builders" which, in the wrong hands, become mere
"facade builders."  People see menus, multi-colored displays, and
whiz-bang functions keys and perceive an effective system, even though
there may be "nothing substantial" behind.

It used to be the case that printing on 11 by 14 edge-punched paper
had authority because it was computer output.  Now that same mystique
has moved to the input side too.
-- 
	Edward Robertson		robertson@cs.indiana.edu
	Computer Science Dept
	Indiana University		812-855-4954
	Bloomington, IN 47405-4101