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Thank Goodness We Don't Have Only Serious Problems, But Ridiculous Ones As Well.

The Use Of Anthropomorphic Terminology Forces You Linguistically To Adopt An Operational View. And It Makes It Practically Impossible To Argue About Programs Independently Of Their Being Executed.

… What Society Overwhelmingly Asks For Is Snake Oil. Of Course, The Snake Oil Has The Most Impressive Names — Otherwise You Would Be Selling Nothing — Like “structured Analysis And Design”, “software Engineering”, “maturity Models”, “management Information Systems”, “integrated Project Support Environments” “object Orientation” And “business Process Re-engineering”.

I Now Have Had My Foggy Crystal Ball For Quite A Long Time. Its Predictions Are Invariably Gloomy And Usually Correct, But I Am Quite Used To That And They Won't Keep Me From Giving You A Few Suggestions, Even If It Is Merely An Exercise In Futility Whose Only Effect Is To Make You Feel Guilty.

Yes, I Share Your Concern: How To Program Well -though A Teachable Topic- Is Hardly Taught. The Situation Is Similar To That In Mathematics, Where The Explicit Curriculum Is Confined To Mathematical Results; How To Do Mathematics Is Something The Student Must Absorb By Osmosis, So To Speak. One Reason For Preferring Symbol-manipulating, Calculating Arguments Is That Their Design Is Much Better Teachable Than The Design Of Verbal/pictorial Arguments. Large-scale Introduction Of Courses On Such Calculational Methodology, However, Would Encounter Unsurmoutable Political Problems.