>If someone stopped writing code in 1990 and started up again in 2000, he wouldn't feel like the world had passed him by.
I find this an interesting comment because this is almost exactly what I did, and I don't feel like it has.
I work for an organization doing linguistic research and literacy and translation based development work.
In 1991 I changed from software support to linguistic field research in an African Village.
This last year I've started programming again, using Borland Delphi/C++ Builder
RABBITTRAIL
As I see it, since 1982, as a linguist/translator there have been the following stages in computers as a tool in a third world environment (including the hardware I've used):
1) c.a. 1982 the personal computer (VT103 with TU58's as system devices, running RT11... if you thought 8.3 file names were bad, try 6.3 with no directories and every file had to live in contiguous space)
2) c.a. 1983 solar power laptop with user definable characters (Sharp PC-5000 with an 8-line screen)cut the power cord.
3) c.a. 1985 24 line screen laptop (Toshiba T1100) enough screen space to edit properly.
4) c.a. 1987 20M hard disk laptop (Toshiba T1200) enough disk space to do more than basic editing.
5) c.a. 1990 The WIMP interface with True type fonts, WYSIWYG and finally an end to designing special characters for each type of screen & printer.
6) Mid-1990's CDs allowed large amounts of storage which meant reference material on-line.
I would include e-mail except that mine usually spends seconds getting to Accra and weeks sitting waiting for me (no telephone at home - satellite is too expensive). As for long file names, they were available in 1990 if you looked out the Windows.
/RABBITTRAIL
The '90s only brought two software development advances worth commenting on into my life. They are:
- the Drag 'n Drop facilities of Delphi, which does something to tame the WIMP user interface, which I didn't ever have to program for in 1990.
- Object-oriented code, which wasn't nearly as important as the subroutine for solving the software complexity problem.
The Merry Minuet
They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain
the Whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like Anybody very much.
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lucky day
Someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away
They're rioting in Africa
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow Man
>Is there anything left to do except make the languages closer to english? This is core of the problem. A program must by definition be written in a formal language in which there is no ambiguity. English (or any spoken language) deals with a broad range of meaning, including emotions, complicated discourse structures (Which English are you talking about what you find in a cook-book or John Grisham novel? they're different). The success of a tool will depend on its ease of use with respect to the problem space that it is applied to. Making computer languages more like English is a long lived Philosopher's Stone. It didn't work with COBOL. It won't work until platform (hardware or software) it runs on is similar to the same one English runs on, i.e. the human mind.
Slashdot Mirror
I find this an interesting comment because this is almost exactly what I did, and I don't feel like it has.
I work for an organization doing linguistic research and literacy and translation based development work.
In 1991 I changed from software support to linguistic field research in an African Village. This last year I've started programming again, using Borland Delphi/C++ Builder
RABBITTRAIL
As I see it, since 1982, as a linguist/translator there have been the following stages in computers as a tool in a third world environment (including the hardware I've used):
The '90s only brought two software development advances worth commenting on into my life. They are:
- the Drag 'n Drop facilities of Delphi, which does something to tame the WIMP user interface, which I didn't ever have to program for in 1990.
- Object-oriented code, which wasn't nearly as important as the subroutine for solving the software complexity problem.
The Merry Minuet
They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain
the Whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like Anybody very much.
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lucky day
Someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away
They're rioting in Africa
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow Man
-- Sheldon Harnick @1958
>Is there anything left to do except make the languages closer to english? This is core of the problem. A program must by definition be written in a formal language in which there is no ambiguity. English (or any spoken language) deals with a broad range of meaning, including emotions, complicated discourse structures (Which English are you talking about what you find in a cook-book or John Grisham novel? they're different). The success of a tool will depend on its ease of use with respect to the problem space that it is applied to. Making computer languages more like English is a long lived Philosopher's Stone. It didn't work with COBOL. It won't work until platform (hardware or software) it runs on is similar to the same one English runs on, i.e. the human mind.