Re: Detail first? Or Big Picture?

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On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:55:20 +1100, "Michael C" <mike@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

"MM" <kylix_is@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:o42qt39estidq487a6rh1p2h7s4qjddavt@xxxxxxxxxx
design - Rapid. Application. Development. Can't be rapid enough in my
book. I know of others who spend weeks designin' away, with ne'er a
sign of any application taking shape. But they are happy. They keep
their RAD picture in their heads. Fair enough.

Surly you can't be advocating a lack of planning is a good thing Mike!

Yes, that's exactly what I am advocating! You can't do it with a new
building, a car, with anything, in fact, that is assembled from nuts,
bolts and bits of metal or plastic. But you CAN do it with software!
The fact that software CAD tools have not yet advanced sufficiently
enough is due to too much diehard thinking. What we ought to be able
to do is say to the computer, create me a "thing", and the computer
asks, "how many records?" It asks a lot more besides, of course. But
later, when users do ask for a bell or a whistle, since the computer
itself knows exactly what it has created, redesigning the database
should take it, oh, about 4 milliseconds. It is, as I have mentioned
before now, really the *users* who know how the manual system works at
present and who are best placed to design their own system. The
computer department should be just a guiding handin the background.
The fact that you're still thinking of a database, presumably with
records and fields and the whole enchilada, means that you're not yet
thinking out of the box! We have to get beyond "a database", "an
internet connection", "a sort routine" just as a customer for a new
building doesn't think in terms of the grouting or the roof ties, both
essential components.

We are NOT yet exploiting computer power to build more computers,
systems and solutions anything like enough. For now, I am that
computer, though, of course, being steam-driven and rather long in the
tooth by now, I operate at speeds a little bit slower than a Cray. I
build my scaffolding, stand back, go hmmm for a while, stand back a
bit more, then beetle away for a day or two, then go hmmmm again and
stand back some more.

Works for me! This is why and how classic VB became the world-beating
product it is (still).

MM
.