TITLE: The Experience of Programming
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: October 28, 2004 12:39 PM
DESC: Today's sessions were a mix of interesting thoughts and tired saws.
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BODY:
<I>[ I wrote this last night but wasn't able to post it then.
Why?  Stay tuned. ]</I>

After the
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-10.html#e2004-10-27T13_11_53.htm">
   Steve McConnell talk</A>
this morning, I went to three technical events:
<UL>
<LI> an Onward! session on changing the experience of programming.

     <P> Jonathan Edwards talked about example-centric programming,
     and in particular two tools he has built: EG, an Eclipse
     plug-in for integrating examples directly into code and the
     IDE, and <A HREF="http://www.subtextual.org/">subtext</A>,
     a language for programming in an example-centric way.  The
     neat idea here is one I've seen elsewhere, that text strings
     are not the right way to represent programs.  A structured
     format offers some interesting possibilities for writing code.

     <P> David Hovemeyer spoke about
     <A HREF="http://findbugs.sourceforge.net/">FindBugs</A>,
     a static analyzer of Java programs that finds common bugs
     based on common bug patterns the authors have identified.
<P>
<LI> an Onward! panel on transforming the software lifecycle.
     It was entertaining in a way, but I have nothing to say
     about it.
<P> 
<LI> a panel on whether software development is (math and science)
     or (arts and crafts).  Engineering wasn't in the title, which
     upset a few folks.  The panel was high-powered --
     <A HREF="http://www.carleton.ca/~rlbiddle/">Robert Biddle</A>,
     <A HREF="http://www.martinfowler.com/">Martin Fowler</A>,
     <A HREF="http://www.dreamsongs.com/">Dick Gabriel</A>,
     <A HREF="http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/johnson/">Ralph Johnson</A>,
     and
     <A HREF="http://www.cc2e.com/">Steve McConnell</A>
     -- and there was some interesting stuff said, especially
     by Biddle on English literature -- but mostly it didn't
     give insights that haven't been given before at many
     events of this sort.  The key lesson is something I
     <A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-10.html#e2004-10-15T14_57_52.htm">blogged a couple of weeks ago</A>:
     Metaphors can both help and limit us in our discovery.
     Use with care.
</UL>

The evening has been BoFs.  The first was for the
<A HREF="http://www.domaindrivendesign.org">Domain Driven Design</A>
community.  Eric Evans published the marvelous book of this title
last year (read it!), and he has cultivated an on-line community
around the idea.  I have volunteered to help out by serving as
an editor and light writer for the FAQ on the web site's wiki.
I have so much free time... but this is an idea and a community
I want to support.

The second -- going now -- is for planning the OOPSLA 2005
conference.  I agreed to chair the Educators Symposium again.
Giddy-up!

Up next is a fun event at the Vancouver Aquarium, of which I've
heard many good things.  I'm ready for a break.
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