TITLE: Fowler on Metaphor
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: December 18, 2004  1:59 PM
DESC: I've always wondered how I should use a good metaphor on software development.  Now I know.
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BODY:
Martin Fowler has a dandy
<A HREF="http://martinfowler.com/bliki/MetaphoricQuestioning.html">
   blog entry</A>
on the good and the bad of playing the "metaphor game"
with software development.  This was the take-home
point for me:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
<I>... it all comes down to how you use the metaphor.
Comparing to another activity is useful if it helps
you formulate questions; it's dangerous when you
use it to justify answers.</I>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

I've always had an
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-10.html#e2004-10-15T14_57_52.htm">
   uneasy relationship</A>
with metaphors for software development, though I'm
a sucker for the
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-12.html#e2004-12-15T10_46_27.htm">
   new ones</A>
I run across.  But what do I gain from the metaphors,
and how do I avoid being burned by them?  Martin's
article captures it.

Maybe this is something I should have known along.
But I didn't.  Thanks, Martin.
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