From: Leonard Rosenthol (leonardr_at_lazerware.com)
Date: Fri Nov 07 2003 - 10:30:38 EST
At 9:52 AM -0400 11/7/03, Randy Kramer wrote:
>Background: I started programming before top-down / bottom-up was an issue,
>lived through the top-down "craze", and have always felt (still do, and
>finally recently found someone brave enough to say it in print), that you
>need a combination of both.
I would agree 100%!
> Maybe a partial way to express my feelings is
>that top down is good, but you have to know enough from the bottom up
>viewpoint to know that your top down approach is implementable.
No question! (if not, the result is "design by marketing"!)
>When I hear someone advocate one or the other (like Leonard *seems* to favor
>top down by saying "Worrying about the text layout engine comes MUCH later.")
I am saying that not so much as a "design edict", but that I
don't think Martin has spent enough time with presentation programs
or talked with other users of them, to really understand the "market".
I am just getting him (and others interested) to see the
larger picture as a place to then help focus the "internals".
>I wonder what, in their background,
>education, experience, or whatever, makes them advocate one approach over the
>other.
>
Too many years in the industry ;).
20 years ago (or so), I was also doing a lot of "code first,
design later" type work and although the results were usable they
weren't always the best possible for the customer or for long term
viability. I learned (the hard way, sometimes!) that there is a
necessary amount of research & design that needs to take place in
order to "get it right".
Just trying to impart that "wisdom"...
Leonard
-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leonard Rosenthol <mailto:leonardr_at_lazerware.com> <http://www.lazerware.com>
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