Automation vs. DSLs (was: Development: A Structured Problem Area?)

Hi Robert,

quoting Robert Watson [
    Perhaps the path to maximum automation with minimal
    error is ever more high-level languages.  I wonder if languages
    would be less intimidating to non-programmers if they used a more
    "successive approximation" approach to development since that is
    more how we think?
]

I don't think of it as automation to have programmers building
languages that let users (which may be other programmers - business
analysts - or just plain humans) define applications in terms they
understand.

To be less intimidating, languages need to be made "human friendly".
To me, that means avoiding things like zero-based arrays, funny
operators (e.g. ++ --), etc. That stuff may not phase programmers, but
it's totally foreign to normal people. Yes, some domains can use special
constructs like that, but we shouldn't just be mapping syntax from
existing languages for end users to see.

Programmer-ese isn't always easy to see, because we're steeped in it.
The more "visible syntax" there is, the more the user has to remember,
the harder it will be for them to use. e.g. which is best for an end
user?

     set_customer_first_name cust "Robert"
     print (1, get_customer_first_name(cust))
     
     customer.name.first = "Robert"
     lines(1).print customer.name.first

     customer's first name is Robert
     print customer's first name on line 1

A more declarative approach is often more natural for non-programmer's
as well (IME).

None of this requires massive or drastic changes, really, but it does
take a change in the way we think when we design tools for users,
whether APIs, as are common today, or as true DSLs.

--Gregg



------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/nhFolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pragprog/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     pragprog-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/