.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

J. Daniel Ashton

www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from jdashton. Make your own badge here.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, —Ecclesiastes 9:10a NIV
The LORD God has told us what is right and what he demands:
"See that justice is done,
let mercy be your first concern,
and humbly obey your God." —Micah 6:8, CEV
With all your heart you must trust the LORD and not your own judgment.
Always let Him lead you, and He will clear the road for you to follow. —Proverbs 3:5,6 CEV

see also — My Homepage

My Photo
Name: Daniel Ashton
Location: Germantown, Maryland, United States


Any links with a dashed underscore probably point to Amazon.com

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

All Programs - Communicate?

My father was quoted recently as saying that there are two fundamentals that music students must learn:
  1. All music is dance music.
  2. All music is vocal music.
The notes you play on piano or violin don't find their musicality until you, the player, can touch their movement and feel their warm breath on your face. It's when your spirit moves and your heart sings that true music pours out.

As I read a developerWorks article by Doug Phillips, it strikes me that a similar rule could be expressed for the applications we use:
  1. All computer programs are about communication.
About the furthest I can come from that rule are games like Solitaire. But even those more frequently have shared score boards, where you can communicate your prowess to other players.

Clearly, e-mail and instant messaging programs are all about communication. Office applications and record keeping are about communication, too, although we forget it too easily.

So, how would your favorite programs be better if their architects and designers had thought more about how they communicate, and how you use them to communicate?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home