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Futurist Programming? Monday 2006-12-04

In clear disagreement with the dogmatic way programming is taught to would-like-to-be programmers today, Paul Haeberli and Bruce Karsh wrote the “Manifesto of Futurist Programming“

Let me just cite a bit from the “Futurist Programming Notes“, that accompanies the manifest:

How would you wash a window?

Suppose we were asked to wash a window and we chose to do it the same way that software is developed. We’d get things like:

  • How to make really nice customizable buckets and squeegees.
  • A system for classifying window shapes. and materials, including of course, window materials and shapes that might be developed in the future.
  • An analysis of how well a window washing technique scales from windows the size of a bee’s wing to the stain-glass windows in the largest cathedral.
  • A commitment for a full design review BEFORE starting any implementation.
  • A consultant to write a user’s manual.
  • A promise of compatibility with the new Window Washing Standard from MIT.
  • Plans for a set of meetings to discuss a schedule for developing user training to teach users to wash windows the modern way.

Who would you rather have “solving” this problem for you, a computer “scientist” or a professional

It’s said that information wants to be free. But how free? I’ll leave the judgement to you, dear reader.

Yet Another Sandy Celebration

Yes, it’s celebration season. Not only because it is December. Here in Sweden it’s hard to believe, by the way. The temperature is well above zero, that’s centigrade or Celsius, as we use to say ;) The grass is green and my mothers roses are still developing flowers.

The long awaited 1.2 version of the Sandy 3D library was launched as a public beta today ( oh, it’s late, it was already yesterday ). Lots of enhancements and bug fixes from 1.1. exciting stuff if you’re into 3D Flash programming.

You can get it here at the Sandy Forum, and don’t forget to fetch the examples too.

Sandy Tutorial Celebration Friday 2006-12-01

I’m quite happy to announce the 7:th Part Celebration of the “Using Sandy…” tutorial.

Hey, you might say, what’s so good about seven? You’re right, it may be premature. Maybe I should wait for the tenth part. On the other hand why not seven. It may seem odd, and mathematically it is.

On the other hand, seven is a magic number and deserves a little celebration. Another good reason is that I don’t know what next to write about. It may be how to use the free MTASC SWF ActionScript compiler or maybe how to use light and filters in Sandy.

Another cause for celebration is that Davide Beltrame ( whom I don’t link to yet, because his site is under construction ) has translated, or rather transposed, the tutorial into the Italian language and mode. Soon to be published. This is exciting indeed, and I’m just a little bit proud.

More on the proceedings later, and kÅ·dos to Thomas, the author of the library and Davide, my hard working translator! You know it takes a lot more words to say something in Italian, and I am wordy to start with.

You can visit my tutorial here.