Bulldozer00's Blog

As the size and complexity of the software-intensive systems that we need to develop increase, a corresponding rise in the level of abstraction of the programming languages used to build them has understandably increased.  From routines to functions, to objects, to namespaces, the progression in abstract text-based language encapsulation mechanisms is depicted in the figure below. Will the transition from text-based languages to graphics-based languages infiltrate the mainstream soon? Isn’t it inevitable that graphical languages, and the tools that enable their use, will push the art of hand-coding via text languages into the dust bin of irrelevance?

In his book Real-Time Agility: The Harmony/ESW Method For Real-Time And Embedded Systems Development, Bruce Powel Douglass unabashedly says “YES!”. His agile methodology (yes, yet another “agile” methodology is foisted upon us) doesn’t even require a “coding” phase/activity.

The figure below attempts to contrast the mainstream CDD (Code Driven Development) approach of today with an MDD (Model Driven Development) approach like Mr. Douglass’s. Will the transition from one dimensional text-based languages to more abstract, two dimensional graphics-based languages be too much of a leap for today’s programmers? Compared with text-to-text language transitions, a text-to-graphics language jump is more akin to a disruptive quantum leap. Will software developers ironically morph into Luddites, fighting this technological change tooth and nail? Is the UML today’s graphical incarnation of the text-based assembler language of yesterday? Will tools like IBM’s Rhapsody and Artisan’s Studio supplant the myriad of compiler-linker toolchains of today? What say you?