rb@ccird1.UUCP (06/24/86)
In article <240@comp.lancs.ac.uk> de@comp.lancs.ac.uk (David England) writes: >In article <473@ccird1.UUCP> rb@ccird1.UUCP (Rex Ballard) writes: >>In article <316@euroies.UUCP> shepherd@euroies.UUCP (Roger Shepherd INMOS) writes: >>>In article <438@ccird1.UUCP> Rex Ballard writes: >>>> All High level languages do is attempt to organize the >>>> etc >>> >>>I disagree with view. A high level language should be more than a glorified >>>macro assembler. >>>etc >> >>In a sense, I agree with you. What you're describing is the human->compiler >>side of what a language should be. I am describing what the compiler->machine >>side should be. >> >... and as far as the human->compiler side of things is concerned the days >of languages are numbered. Visual programming and spatial data management >are the "languages" of the future. In five years time there should be no >net.lang* :-). If this was a bit mapped screen I would draw this article >as a vt100 icon being thrown into a trash can icon :-). >-- Good point Dave, I hope you are right, that the era of "text oriented" systems is on the way out. What information do people have on visual programming? What effects will this have on archetecture? I have seen a few "flow chart" languages, and yes, they do look promising. I would hope that "structure chart" languages as well as "graphic libraries" will also begin to evolve. Of course in terms of "system archetecture" the intellegent graphics "terminal" combined with the high power "file server" opens some very interesting opportuntites in parallel programming as well. P.S. I set the "follow-up" to net.lang because their is probably more info there.
de@comp.lancs.ac.uk (David England) (07/02/86)
[As ccird1 is unreachable by mail from here ...] In article <525@ccird1.UUCP> rb@ccird1.UUCP (Rex Ballard) writes: >In article <240@comp.lancs.ac.uk> de@comp.lancs.ac.uk (David England) writes: >>... and as far as the human->compiler side of things is concerned the days >>of languages are numbered. Visual programming and spatial data management >>are the "languages" of the future. >>etc >>-- > >Good point Dave, I hope you are right, that the era of "text oriented" >systems is on the way out. What information do people have on >visual programming? Some pointers to visual programming etc; diSessa A, Notes on the future of Programming in, "User Centered System Design" (eds. Norman D. A., Draper S W), Erlbaum, 1986 Shneiderman B, Direct manipulation: A step beyond programming languages, IEEE Computer 16(8), 57-69, 1983. Plus the follow up articles referenced in the above and try playing with Mac/Smalltalk/Logo - together is best but separately is just as instructive and fun. Hopefully programming will be transformed into Design specification based on catalogues of reusable components like other more mature engineering disciplines. -- Dave uucp: ...!mcvax!ukc!dcl-cs!de arpa: de%lancs.comp@ucl-cs "And now I know how Joan of Arc felt/As the flames rose/To her Roman nose/ And her Walkman started to melt"
davidsen@steinmetz.UUCP (07/08/86)
I have to disagree that visual languages will be the main thrust of
programming in five years, or even in twenty. Languages will be used
partially as a side effect of inertia (we always did it this way) and
partially due to "goodness of fit" to a problem. Thus COBOL remains a
staple language because it is a reasonable way to attack vertain
problems, while others are better attacked using Pascal or C.
The reason for preference (for instance C over Pascal), in many cases
is a good fit between the user's thought process and the language.
People who don't think in structured ways may find that FORTRAN is
better (for them) than other languages.
History teaches that things change slowly. The languages of the 50's
and 60's are still in use today, and I suspect that Pascal and C will
still be popular in twenty years (hopefully ADA will die :-).
--
-bill davidsen
ihnp4!seismo!rochester!steinmetz!--\
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"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward"