a4000 Impressions
I understand your concerns and share them to (probably) a lessor degree.
I see both up and down sides to this new trend, but tend to lean (out of
neccesity ?) towards your last proposal… that it might simply transform
and evolve our present-day concepts.
We've always had a great deal of flexability in the Amiga from both a
User's and Programmer's view (everything being treated like a device, so
you can "1> copy filename prt:" for example). This flexability keeps
expanding with more/better shared-libraries (with standard requesters,
freeing the programmer from having to 'invent' one) then ARexx, letting
users connect applications together in ways the programmer never thought
of.
I don't think datatypes will be capable in and of themselves to present
complex application-level concepts in a usable fasion… while some
programs may indeed just be containers for them (like Multiview), there
will still be plenty of room (programming-wise) for the nuts-n-bolts stuff
that makes one application different from the next.
You mentioned the end of the "fun" parts that we do now… I guess
that's pretty much a subjective issue. Personally, the area of programming
that I enjoy most is in the 'presentation' of the application (or in the
'way' something is implemented, including, but not limmited to the UI). As
an example, I have a great interest in 3d solid-modeling, and have been
having fun developing a 3-space engine (all the matrix operations, distance
calculations etc.) but what I'd _really_ prefer is to have a library of
those routines already available, so I could concentrate on "doing neat
things with it".
Anyway, time will tell I guess… for the time-being, I'm spending my
time thinking of the possibilities datatypes brings to the table. I'll
either think of something to cook, or get out of the kitchen <grin>.
– Keith