How we pose a question
At the end of FDPE, someone brought up Scratch and asked what a functional version might be. His description of the problem being solved was “moving icons around on the screen” and, accordingly, suggested that Scratch’s imperative style may therefore be fitting.
To me, animation is no more about moving things around on the screen than arithmetic is about putting numerals on the screen. Sure, in the end, we’ll probably want to present (display) animations and numbers, but thinking of animations or numbers as being about presentation thwarts simplicity and composability.
How we pose a question is perhaps the single strongest influence on the beauty and power of our answers.
chessguy:
As Henry Ford said, if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have said “faster horses”.
23 September 2008, 2:28 am