Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!ingr!brooke From: brooke@ingr.com (Brooke King) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Evolving Comment Styles Message-ID: <4098@ingr.com> Date: 24 Feb 89 23:40:45 GMT References: <9674@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> Reply-To: brooke@ingr.UUCP (Brooke King) Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, AL -- but opinions are all mine! Lines: 36 In article <9674@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> jerbil@cit-vax.caltech.edu (Stainless Steel Gerbil [Joe Beckenbach]) writes: | | As I was following the thread of discussion about comments and | 'good coding style' with regards to these, I thought of a neat little shift | which I think embodies what this facet of software engineering should head | towards: not "self-documenting code" but "self-coding documents". | | The Hyper-Programming idea thrown out by one participant gives the | right slant: combining the documentation, graphics, and code into a more | comprehensive source. | Just my two cents and a new twist on an 'old' viewpoint. Some old information which is somewhat related: Iris Vessey and Ron Weber, "Stuctured Tools and Conditional Logic: An Empirical Investigation," _Communications of the ACM_, January 1986, Vol 29, Nr. 1, pp. 48-57. The article empirically hints at what we all feel, that linear programming languages are inferior to well-done multi-dimensional (perhaps graphical) programming languages. The whole August 1985 issue (on visual programming) of _IEEE Computer_ is pretty interesting and some of it was referenced in Vessey and Weber. Anyone have any pointers to some more recent work (that is also not too heavy)? | Joe Beckenbach joe@csvax.caltech.edu Caltech 256-80, Pasadena CA 91125 | Users I'd like to see: | Postmaster@link.L5.edu gorby@party.kremlin.gov.cccp -- brooke@ingr.com uunet!ingr!brooke W+1 205 7727796 H+1 205 8950824