Comments on: nit picking, blip edition http://www.pzed.ca/words/2009/03/23/nit-picking-blip-edition/ what do you read, m'lord? Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:31:29 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Jonathan Rochkind http://www.pzed.ca/words/2009/03/23/nit-picking-blip-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-78618 Jonathan Rochkind Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:32:23 +0000 http://www.pzed.ca/words/?p=246#comment-78618 The trick is that, thinking like a programmer, a blip isn't REALLY a song plus a comment, it's an abstract data object that has both a song and a comment attached to it. That's how a programmer thinks, but it's awfully confusing and pointless to try to explain that to a user. So I'm seeing a programmer writing that, and describing a blip as "a combination of a song and a comment" because that seems clearer to a Normal Person, but then forgetting this mental model when they got to end of the paragraph and reverting to their default programmer mental model, where things are attached. I'm up way too late writing random comments on blogs about such things. The trick is that, thinking like a programmer, a blip isn’t REALLY a song plus a comment, it’s an abstract data object that has both a song and a comment attached to it. That’s how a programmer thinks, but it’s awfully confusing and pointless to try to explain that to a user.

So I’m seeing a programmer writing that, and describing a blip as “a combination of a song and a comment” because that seems clearer to a Normal Person, but then forgetting this mental model when they got to end of the paragraph and reverting to their default programmer mental model, where things are attached.

I’m up way too late writing random comments on blogs about such things.

]]> By: pzed http://www.pzed.ca/words/2009/03/23/nit-picking-blip-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-78615 pzed Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:07:24 +0000 http://www.pzed.ca/words/?p=246#comment-78615 aw, shucks aw, shucks

]]> By: kelly http://www.pzed.ca/words/2009/03/23/nit-picking-blip-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-78599 kelly Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:31:10 +0000 http://www.pzed.ca/words/?p=246#comment-78599 I love you. I love you.

]]>