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   Glenn Fleishman (glennf@twit.social)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 05:01:11 JST Glenn Fleishman

   • Thomas 🔭🕹️

   @thomasfuchs oo, oo, remember “expert systems”!

   • Embed this notice
     Glenn Fleishman (glennf@twit.social)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 05:33:14 JST Glenn Fleishman

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs It's weird, because there is something like 30–40 years of visual programming systems that can be pretty robust, or at least address many people's need for data handling. Those are typically vastly better than all the "solutions" even when they're imperfect.

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     Marty Fouts (martyfouts@mastodon.online)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 05:50:36 JST Marty Fouts

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs That part of “The Psychology of Computing Programming” might be read that way now but it’s not what Weinberg was talking about in context. He was referring to the emergence of software methodologies that didn’t take into account psychology.

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     Marty Fouts (martyfouts@mastodon.online)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 06:12:09 JST Marty Fouts

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs oh AI researchers have always over promised but under delivered, starting with Herbert Simon’s 1956 claim that human translation would be eliminated in 10 years. Surprisingly few books have addressed this. But Weinberg was concerned with something far more fundamental: the failure to treat programming as a psychological activity. That failure continues to this day.

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     Marty Fouts (martyfouts@mastodon.online)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 06:23:23 JST Marty Fouts

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs Its examples are dated but they were well considered for the time. I have long thought it needs an update to accommodate how the sociology of programming has changed. I am sure that you will like it.

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     Tony Hoyle (tony@toot.hoyle.me.uk)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 06:27:21 JST Tony Hoyle

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs 4GL, which begat things like Uniface
     MFC..
     VB..

     All were supposed to make programming 'just clicking buttons' and all failed completely.

     AI is more of the same.

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     Christian Lynbech (mapcar@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 06:48:13 JST Christian Lynbech

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs Unfortunately, computer executives will be computer executives.

     As reported by the The Verge, there are currently layoffs going around in the industry. There could be many explanations, I could however fear that one explanation could be that a lot of executives thinks AI will mean they can do the same work with a lot less employees. They will be mistaken, if that is the case, but it might be a painful period until they realize that.

     https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/14/23458204/meta-twitter-amazon-apple-layoffs-hiring-freezes-latest-tech-industry

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     Christian Lynbech (mapcar@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 09:06:07 JST Christian Lynbech

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs I am not sure if that is better (that the executives know) or worse (that they know and do it anyway).

     As for the recent wave of layoffs, I am once again amazed how the supposedly highly innovative and trailblazing Sillicon Valley keeps showing amazing flock mentality.

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     Null Hypothesis (null_hypothesis@mas.to)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Jan-2024 12:30:30 JST Null Hypothesis

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs —while y’all digging through that box in the attic, does anyone remember the CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering) promised iteratively through the `80s & `90s? :ablobgrin: