Novels and programs (was: Re: [plt-scheme] Prereqs for robotic programming

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 9:21 AM, <hendrik at topoi.pooq.com> wrote:

>
> The thing is, there are good writers in both camps.
>
> Are there similar phenomena in computer programming?
>

I can find similar phenomena within myself (not saying I am a good developer
though as that's for others to judge) :)

When I am building an application, often times it makes sense to do some
upfront requirements, specs, and designs so I have an understanding of what
to do.  But there are also situations, most often when tackling an
unfamiliar problem domain, writing APIs, I have to first hack a probable
solution, than I can eventually evole the solution into something that I
like (unfortunately, sometimes that means never).

It could be just a habit, but even if I tried to write the API on paper, I
found it's not as satisfying as seeing the code actually evolve, as the API
written on paper is most likely also wrong since it's my first try (and it's
harder to correct the API on paper than on keyboard).

This might not be a 100% parallel, but that's what I immediately thought of
when reading your msg.

Cheers,
yc
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