Ruven, >So the argument is, since we can't change the commercial reality that application >domain knowledge is undervalued, those >interesed in psychology of programming should ignore it as well and focus on what >color to make our variables?
There is an important difference between learning to live with something and ignoring it. >Further, since people are "inclined to use what they already know, >rather than learning something new," any innovations in programming that will gain >acceptance >must be restricted to those that minimize new learning? Minimizing costs (eg, minimizing new learning) is an important goal in all commercial endeavours. Of course there are situation where a benefit may be so large that a high cost is worth paying (ie sending somebody on a three month training course to learn new techniques). > So what we ought to focus on is getting people who don't understand the job they're > really doing to do it better, without their having to put in much effort? Exactly. Of course this is an ideal. In practice there are some people who know something about what they are doing, or who are willing to put in lots of effort learning new things. >In fact, I'd argue that there's a huge, rich area for investigation, training >programmers to learn new application domains. And who is going to pay for this? We both know you cannot send turn a 3D graphics person into a database programmer by sending them on a two week course. Do the economics of six month training courses really pan out? What we need is a taxonomy of mental models for every application domain, and a way of checking whether a person has and can use a given mental model. People could then match their existing mental models against those needed to work on a given application. People wanting to change application domains could go on mental models courses to learn about those they don't yet have. 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/
