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Re: Software's Weak Link is Code

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On Wed, 23 Jul 2014 12:59:42 -0400, <visualforth@rocketmail.com> wrote:

> Software's Weak Link is Code... - this is the title of an 'electronic  
> design' article which I just read:
> [link]
>
> Peter Thorne writes about a paradigm shift in which we are living now -  
> leaving 'hand-coding' behind us, switching to automated code generation  
> using system-diagram-based tools and the like.

Someone must still code the "system-diagram-based tools" via 'hand-coding'.

Once the "system-diagram-based tools" are coded correctly, then anything
compiled using them could solve the problem of code being the weak link,
if code really is such a problem, which I doubt.

The big advantage isn't the elimination of code, but the elimination of
coding skills.  They've replaced skilled programming with point-and-click
diagramming where you don't need an education or skills in programming,
math, engineering, problem solving, or much intelligence to code, etc,
although you may need some skills of the specific domain, say PLDs or
EFT or OLTP or whatever.

Using diagrams would offer tremendous advantages to those who are
especially visual as compared to those who are verbal.  Unfortunately,
verbal people account for 75% of the populace.  So, you diminish the
number of people who would work as effectively with the new tools.  I'm
not saying verbal people can't use visual tools.  Visual people use
verbal tools every day.  I'm just saying that one group is likely more
effective with specific tools than the other.

Another advantage is that an image or "visual code" can represent far
more information than some lines of written code.  If anything, the
"image is worth a thousand words" belief is comparable to a language
with a high, average level of "function points" per code statement.

> This is a chance for Forth to stay alive. Using Forth is an excellent  
> choice for building such kind of tools. Forth has all the features  
> needed for automatic software generation.

Compilers, including C compilers, have "all the features" that are
needed for "automatic software generation" too.  There are also many
programs which do automatic code generation, e.g., Lex, Yacc, etc.

> VisualFORTH uses automatic software generation, and that's
> the way to go.

Ok.  But, it seems that Forth would be very "late to the party" to me,
especially considering that VisualBasic has been around since 1991 ...
I.e., timing, advantage, etc issues.


Rod Pemberton

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Software's Weak Link is Code visualforth@rocketmail.com - 2014-07-23 09:59 -0700
  Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Roger Levy <roger.levy@gmail.com> - 2014-07-23 10:32 -0700
    Re: Software's Weak Link is Code JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2014-07-23 11:40 -0700
      Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Celeros <kerneels@gmail.com> - 2014-07-25 16:10 +0200
        Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Roger Levy <roger.levy@gmail.com> - 2014-07-25 07:22 -0700
          Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Roger Levy <roger.levy@gmail.com> - 2014-07-25 07:28 -0700
          Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Paul E Bennett <Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk> - 2014-07-25 18:06 +0100
          Re: Software's Weak Link is Code rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2014-07-25 15:16 -0400
            Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Paul E Bennett <Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk> - 2014-07-25 22:19 +0100
            Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Celeros <kerneels@gmail.com> - 2014-07-26 23:42 +0200
              Re: Software's Weak Link is Code rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2014-07-26 22:44 -0400
        Re: Software's Weak Link is Code "Rod Pemberton" <dont_use_email@xnothavet.cqm> - 2014-07-25 16:45 -0400
          Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Celeros <kerneels@gmail.com> - 2014-07-26 23:08 +0200
    Re: Software's Weak Link is Code "Alex McDonald" <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2014-07-24 00:04 +0100
      Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Roger Levy <roger.levy@gmail.com> - 2014-07-24 08:25 -0700
  Re: Software's Weak Link is Code "Rod Pemberton" <dont_use_email@xnothavet.cqm> - 2014-07-24 03:26 -0400
    Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Mark Wills <markwills1970@gmail.com> - 2014-07-24 01:32 -0700
    Re: Software's Weak Link is Code Unknown <dog@gmail.com> - 2014-07-26 08:17 +0000
      Re: Software's Weak Link is Code "Rod Pemberton" <dont_use_email@xnothavet.cqm> - 2014-07-26 05:39 -0400
        Re: Software's Weak Link is Code visualforth@rocketmail.com - 2014-07-26 17:37 -0700
  Re: Software's Weak Link is Code anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2014-07-24 13:45 +0000

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