Re: Programming language and IDE design

On Sun, 20 Oct 2013 14:03:18 -0700, Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net>
wrote:


>On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 11:06:26 +0100, Martin Ward <martin@gkc.org.uk>
>wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>>So my assertion is "Source code should be hard to write": *even if*
>>the writing difficulty does not result in any improvement in ease of
>>reading! For example: before any programmer checks in a new module or
>>program change, they should be forced to write out all the code
>>longhand with a quill pen. This apparently pointless extra work
>>should give programmer's the opportunity to think about whether there
>>might be a shorter way to solve the problem (which might even be
>>easier to read and understand).
>
> It is pointless. I would be too concerned with the writing to
>look much at the code.
>
> Someone who is not inclined to think more about the problem is
>not going to start doing so because you make him write it longhand.
>
>[snip]
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Gene Wirchenko
>[He's being ironic, dude. Keypunching often had this salutary
>effect. -John]


            Is he? I once read a similar opinion where the writer was
apparently quite serious. In that case, it was a student learning
programming should be required to rewrite down the entire program when
he made errors.


Sincerely,


Gene Wirchenko
[I hope we'll find out. -John]

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.