Re: Communications of ACM: Sir, Please Step Away from the ASR-33!

["Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:41:36 +0200, Niklas Holsti wrote:

> Such mixed 2D+text codes are already a reality for many programmers who 
> use box-and-arrow diagrams with tools like LabView, Simulink, or any of 
> the UML-based tools, combined with application-specific function-boxes 
> written in some traditional textual language. These programmers may not 
> even glance at the 1D-text source-code that the tools generate from the 
> diagrams, much less attempt to understand the structure of this code.

In one project the customer was adamant that all code must be written in
such a language (DiaDem, now owned NI. They also maintain LabView). He had
an idea that diagrams were easy to understand, so that he could modify them
by himself.

As expected this ended in a disaster. The project was a real-size one. I
have no idea how many square meters the diagram was, but in the end we had
no other choice than to write a program, which processed the textual
descriptions of diagram. They were text files. So instead of editing square
kilometers of arrows, imagine how would you browse for anything in such a
thing! we patched these text files and let the tool add missing connections
and necessary blocks. Nobody ever looked at the blocks and arrows. Just to
load the mess to look at it took minutes.

Fortunately at some point the customer dropped the requirement and we
gradually removed most of the mess. Now only 1% of code remains in DiaDem.

Ada has nothing to fear from this side.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de