You might also find large differences in the same type of software across different application domains.
I can hardly image that the same mental model would be used for a programmer writing a client/server application for machines that package cereal as for a client/server application for university students to select housing. (Well, given the functionality of some of the apps I've seen, perhaps, there are some programmers who use the same mental model for both.) Ruven Brooks -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Derek M Jones Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 5:32 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: PPIG discuss: Programmer's mental models Steven, >I m setting up a study to elicit the mental models that developers have >when working on different kinds of applications, for example a rich >client application, web application, client server app etc. What are >the You are making a big assumption about the characteristics of these applications. While the end result of the applications might differ I suspect that there is a great deal of commonality between them, at the source code level. Perhaps you should first measure the extent to which the source of programs implementing these applications differ. You might find there is more variance between two groups writing for the same application domain than between different applications written by the same group Ok, so that will be a lot of work. But I don't see how you can make any claims about developers mental models without first measuring the commonality involved and the variances between the different controlling variables. derek -- Derek M Jones tel: +44 (0) 1252 520 667 Knowledge Software Ltd mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Applications Standards Conformance Testing http://www.knosof.co.uk ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
