TITLE: Quick Hits on the Way Out of Dodge
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: April 08, 2009  6:32 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Well, Carefree.  But it plays the Western theme to the
hilt.

This was a shorter conference visit than usual.  Due to bad
weather on the way here, I arrived on the last flight in on
Sunday.  Due to work constraints of my workshop colleagues,
I am heading out before the Wednesday morning session.  Yet
it was a productive trip -- like
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2008-03.html#e2008-03-19T00_40_23.htm">
   last year</A>,
but this time on our own work, as originally planned.  We
produced
<UL>
<LI> the beginnings of a catalog of data-driven real-world
     problems used in CS1 courses across the country, and </LI>
<LI> half of a grant proposal to NSF's CPATH program, to
     fund some of our more ambitious ideas about programming
     for everyone, including CS majors.  </LI>
</UL>
A good trip.

Yesterday over our late afternoon break, we joined with the
other workshop group and had an animated discussion started
by a guy who has been involved with the agile community.
He claimed that XP and other agile approaches tell us that
"thinking is not allowed", that
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2008-12.html#e2008-12-05T16_59_32.htm">
   no design is allowed</A>.
A straw man can be fun and useful for exploring the boundaries
of a metaphor.  But believing it for real?  Sigh.

A passing thought:  Will professionals in other disciplines
really benefit from knowing how to program?  Why can't they
"just" use a spreadsheet or a modeling tool like
<A HREF="http://econometrics.com/index.shtml">
   Shazam</A>?
This question didn't come to mind as a doubt, but as a
realization that I need a variety of compelling stories to
tell when I talk about this with people who don't already
believe my claim.

While speaking of spreadsheets...  My co-conspirator
<A HREF="http://www.cs.duke.edu/~rcd/">
   Robert Duvall</A>
was poking around
<A HREF="http://www.swivel.com/">
   Swivel</A>,
a web site that collects and shares open data sets, and
read about the founders' inspiration.  They cited something
Dan Bricklin said about his own inspiration for inventing
the spreadsheet:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
I wanted to create a word processor for data.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Very nice.  Notice that Bricklin's word processor for data
exposes a powerful form of end-user programming.

When I go to conferences, I usually feel as if the friends
and colleagues I meet are doing more, and more interesting,
things than I -- in research, in class, in life.  It turns
out that a lot of my friends and colleagues seem to think
the same thing about <EM>their</EM> friends and colleagues,
including me.  Huh.

I write this in the air.  I was booked on a 100% full 6:50
AM PHX-MSP flight.  We arrive at the airport a few minutes
later than planned.  Rats, I have been assigned a window
seat by the airline.  Okay, so I get on the plane and take
my seat.  A family of three gets on and asks me hopefully
whether there is any chance I'd like an aisle seat.  Sure,
I can help.  (!)  I trade out to the aisle seat across the
aisle so that they can sit together.  Then the guy booked
into the middle seat next to me doesn't show.  Surprise:
room for my Macbook Pro and my elbows.  Some days, the
smile on me in small and unexpected ways.
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