Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!news.glorb.com!usenet.stanford.edu!news.iecc.com!.POSTED!nerds-end From: Gene Wirchenko Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Programming language and IDE design Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 14:44:49 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 40 Sender: johnl@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <13-10-021@comp.compilers> References: <13-10-016@comp.compilers> <13-10-020@comp.compilers> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.iecc.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: leila.iecc.com 1382412684 91357 64.57.183.58 (22 Oct 2013 03:31:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 03:31:24 +0000 (UTC) Keywords: design, comment Posted-Date: 21 Oct 2013 23:31:22 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:1004 On Sun, 20 Oct 2013 14:03:18 -0700, Gene Wirchenko wrote: >On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 11:06:26 +0100, Martin Ward >wrote: > >[snip] > >>So my assertion is "Source code should be hard to write": *even if* >>the writing difficulty does not result in any improvement in ease of >>reading! For example: before any programmer checks in a new module or >>program change, they should be forced to write out all the code >>longhand with a quill pen. This apparently pointless extra work >>should give programmer's the opportunity to think about whether there >>might be a shorter way to solve the problem (which might even be >>easier to read and understand). > > It is pointless. I would be too concerned with the writing to >look much at the code. > > Someone who is not inclined to think more about the problem is >not going to start doing so because you make him write it longhand. > >[snip] > >Sincerely, > >Gene Wirchenko >[He's being ironic, dude. Keypunching often had this salutary >effect. -John] Is he? I once read a similar opinion where the writer was apparently quite serious. In that case, it was a student learning programming should be required to rewrite down the entire program when he made errors. Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko [I hope we'll find out. -John]