Exceptional coding style

[H. S. Teoh]

On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 12:57:43AM +0100, Rob T wrote:
[...]
> The sad part is that after all these decades, we're still _writing_
> code, and we're doing it in essentially the exact same way as was
> done 30 years ago using a text editor.
> 
> For whatever reason, no other means of constructing software
> programs has really taken off, and I have to wonder why.
[...]

I think it's because people have vastly underestimated (1) the
complexity of programming -- it is non-trivial to reduce it to a simple,
tractable paradigm, and (2) the expressive power of language -- that is,
a linear medium of concept representation.

It's paradoxical that a 1D (i.e. linear) representation is more useful
for capturing the complexity of programming as opposed to, say, a 2D
graphical representation, say, or even a 3D representation. But perhaps
it's not so paradoxical if one considers that a linear representation is
sufficient to capture all of programming, and processing a 2D or 3D
representation adds no expressive power yet introduces more expensive
processing on the part of the compiler/language processor.

Or maybe it's just because humans are just linear-thinking creatures. :)


T

-- 
Verbing weirds language. -- Calvin (& Hobbes)