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000038_icon-group-sender _Wed Apr 28 08:13:44 1993.msg
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Received: by cheltenham.cs.arizona.edu; Wed, 28 Apr 1993 07:47:09 MST
Date: 28 Apr 1993 08:13:44 -0600 (CST)
From: Chris Tenaglia - 257-8765 <TENAGLIA@mis.mcw.edu>
Subject: Re: runtime debugger
To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
Message-Id: <01GXJDCU5ZIW8WW7RY@mis.mcw.edu>
Organization: Medical College of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI)
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> In article <1993Apr23.150030.11124@midway.uchicago.edu> goer@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
> >"Clint Jeffery" <cjeffery@cs.arizona.edu> writes:
> |>
> |does not cater to the introductory CS course regimen. Icon has, as its
> |natural constituency, people interested in AI, NLP, text, translation,
> |and general nonnumeric computing. Intro CS courses are not taught, in
> |
> |The Icon Project members are, interestingly, more capable in nonnumeric
> |matters than most CS researchers I've met. Which leads me to wonder: Why
> |pretend any longer that Icon is standard CS fare? Its major user-accessible
> |advances have largely been in interface design and in solving problems that
> |require heuristic methods, rather than algorithmic ones. Icon really isn't
> |(from a user's standpoint) a good, standard CS language, except for those
> |interested in language design and theory.
> |
> |Icon is a *great* language, and I hope it won't go away. Makes life easier
> |for a large range of problems. It's just that this range of problems lies
> |more in my area, I think, than it does in the CS fold. Clint: Why not take
> |advantage of Icon's uniqueness, and start showing up a Humanities computing
> |conferences, interface design conventions, etc. :-) 1/2 ?
> |
> My question, is? WHat really cool things have been done in ICON?
> and how much code did it take to implement them?
> pat
This depends on ones definition of 'COOL'. The best, production quality, and
yes software I've written and sold is usually rather boring and mundane. But
that's what computing is all about; getting the machine to do boring and
mundane things so we humans can have more fun.
I wrote a tick-tack-toe game that cheats (as a side effect of automatic
type casting), and I think it's real cool. But I don't expect anyone to
pay money for something like that. I wrote a peotry/verse generator that
generates great material for talk.bizaare, but I don't expect any big
offers on that.
Where the money and opportunites are now is in things like mailing labels,
marketing demos, email/groupware, and client/server. Boring as can be, but
packaged right, and promoted right, it'll fly. Icon in and of itself won't
ever be used by Microsoft, CA, DEC, IBM, et al because they've established
a culture and dynasty that is set in stone.
The customer doesn't care if we use Icon, C++, or DOS BATCH to solve a problem.
They simply want their problem solved, and as cheaply as possible. Oh well.
Chris Tenaglia (System Manager) | "The past explained,
Medical College of Wisconsin | the future fortold,
8701 W. Watertown Plank Rd. | the present largely appologized for."
Milwaukee, WI 53226 | Organon to The Doctor
(414)257-8765 |
tenaglia@mis.mcw.edu