Naur on Programming as Theory Building (1985) [pdf]

pages.cs.wisc.edu

6 pointsjaytaylor3 comments

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Notes:

My first encounter with this paper came from this thread:

"programmers spend most of their time trying to figure out and understand the system"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30860135

There are numerous interesting observations from other readers.

One of my favorites is:

mikewarot writes

> The main value of a software company is the mapping of source code and problem space in the developer’s heads [In linked article]

The linked article is pretty good https://hiringengineersbook.com/post/autonomy/

I also saw this (Naur's piece) linked to in that thread; thank you for submitting it, and it's rather a shame it didn't get many upvotes. It is definitely front-page worthy. I just sat down to read it, tonight.

And wow, what a treat it was. I thought I knew what is argument was going to be (that theory building is the primary task of programmers) — but the plot twist I did not see coming was the argument that it is inherently a part of the programmer's mind, and cannot be separated from the mind! And wow, was it well argued. Went in for a lesson in engineering, and got schooled in philosophy too.

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