- From: Robert Stevens <robert.stevens@manchester.ac.uk>
- Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:22:31 +0100
- To: <wangxiao@musc.edu>,<public-semweb-lifesci@w3.org>
"> >>carefully; I think it is imperative for the computer > scientists among > >>us to also teach them the importance of designing their software > >>carefully." This is not preaching; it is doing -- my main original point. I do, however, return to the point that many of us in CS only get as far as saying "it should be done properly" and little else. There are, of course, many exceptions. My point of substance was about modularisation. I hope that someone will show me how to do it in OWL, after telling me what the behaviour of a module is. Tools; tools; tools. robert. At 14:08 12/10/2005, wangxiao wrote: > > Agree furiously... > >+ 1. > >Solution always lies in the middle. But the problem is how we make both >sides must be willing to meet. > > > > Craig Webster wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > > >>Dear Robert, We certainly do need to enable, but I do see > > preaching > > >>as critical as well. I see it happen far too often in our > > field that > > >>people jump into large projects and "just do it" without > > proper design > > >>and deliberation up front. They end up wasting huge amounts of > > >>effort, and creating artifacts that waste the time of > > others as well. > > >> > > >>Biologists learn the importance of designing their experiments > > >>carefully; I think it is imperative for the computer > > scientists among > > >>us to also teach them the importance of designing their software > > >>carefully. > > > > > > > > > > > > While the "just do it" attitude does have problems, there is also a > > > problem with the "plan it all" attitude. The first gives > > you a working > > > but hard to extend artefact. The second give you a > > beautiful, easy to > > > extend and maintain artefact which can be hard to work with. > > > > > > The model should accurately portray the domain and the best > > way (in my > > > opinion) to do this is to walk the middle ground: plan, design, > > > implement a model which loosely matches the domain and try > > to use it. > > > After using teh model and seeing what is lacking you can > > then extend > > > the model to match how it will be used. > > > > > > Yours, > > > Craig > > > > > > > >
Received on Wednesday, 12 October 2005 15:23:45 UTC