From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.20020311134540.00998010@pop3.clear.net.nz> To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu From: Andrew Simmons Subject: Re: [9fans] samuel In-Reply-To: <20020310235950.C851319991@mail.cse.psu.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 13:45:40 +1300 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 634243e4-eaca-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 >But, if you insist on building systems which require an IQ of more >than 100 to operate, then by definition you are excluding more >than 1/2 of the world's population from using the system. > Well, I don't see how that could be true by definition, but surely the point is that the discussion concerns an environment for programmers, rather than the world's population in general, and one would hope that the average programmer has an IQ greater than 100. Programmers may be happy to put in the time to learn a system that is difficult to use at first glance, in exchange for increased productivity down the track. Having said that, I'm with you on the usefulness of syntax-aware tools. The problem is that they are often done badly (Visual C++), or appallingly badly (Visual Basic). I do however like the Codewarrior IDE on the Mac, which provides a drop down list of functions. Others here would hate it. Live and let live.