Don Gilbert writes:
DG> Lars,
DG> The current way of compiling and linking program source code works
DG> fine for programmers. The component software concept exemplified by
DG> Java Beans and OpenDoc extends program building to non-programmers.
DG> This is something that can be very helpful
DG> for an average biologist, who couldn't program out of a paper bag,
DG> but who could drag & drop program components (a sequence reader like
DG> readseq, various sequence manipulators, reporter components)
DG> into an application skeleton (bean bag) to create an application that
DG> does just the data analysis s/he wants. This goes forward along
DG> the lines I've been trying to develop my general sequence
DG> editor, seqpup, as an expandable, user-customizable tool.
I see. Thanks for the careful explanation! I guess I am getting behind
on programming methods nowadays.
So how much of the Java Beans stuff is hype? Are there any actual
examples of the technology that resembles the data analysis you
outline? To me, it seems that such a system necessarily will get
extremely complex, with hairy component interface issues, that will be
a serious hurdle for the non-programmer. I might come out as a
pessimist here, but the problem of good component interfaces is a
problem of object oriented programming in my experience, a problem
that gets in the way of more experimental programming (putting
together programs when it is not clear how the final design should
look like).
Best regards,
Lars
--
Lars Arvestad Dept. of Numerical Analysis and Computing Science
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden
