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Re: Does WTSIWYG make simplicity moot? (was Re: dtds

• To: xml-dev <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: Re: Does WTSIWYG make simplicity moot? (was Re: dtds, schemas, xhtml, and multimedia technologies)
• From: Joe English <jenglish@f...>
• Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 07:43:01 -0800
• In-reply-to: <3DD0B4C4.80406@p...>
• References: <3DD0B4C4.80406@p...> <4QM05QM94FD4XBA3Z6164BYWLI6Z1.3dd08d25@MChamp>

Paul Prescod wrote:

> Note that languages/systems that depend on IDEs have no evolutionary
> staying power. [...] And every attempt to
> make programming languages deeply visual has failed.
>
> Part of the problem is that there is a stubborn hacker subculture that
> will not be bullied into buying tools and they will invent a better
> replacement if only to avoid it!

I wouldn't write this off to hacker stubbornness.
When it comes to programming, a text editor and a good
language really *are* the best tools for the job.

A point-and-click IDE might be an effective way
to assemble a working application from prepackaged
components, but that isn't programming.  I believe
something similar is true for schema design.

> Visualization tools are fine, but they should be visualizing the true
> abstractions in the language you are "editing", not trying to hide them
> from you with some thin, proprietary, quasi-abstraction layer.

Or used as a band-aid to make up for an overly complex
underlying abstraction.


--Joe English

  jenglish@f...

• References:
  • Re: Does WTSIWYG make simplicity moot? (was Re: dtds, schemas, xhtml, and multimedia technologies)
    • From: Paul Prescod <paul@p...>
  • Does WTSIWYG make simplicity moot? (was Re: dtds, schemas,xhtml, and multimedia technologies)
    • From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>

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