On 5 Sep 2006, at 19:20, alex wrote:
>> Consider the difference of thinking with your finger on the guitar
>> fretboard and thinking
>> with your eyes on your text editor where you program. (and the
>> importance of the ENTER button)
>
> But you don't think about what your finger does, do you?
No, that's precisely the point. When re-reading the sentence above I
think
I should clarify that I meant "thinking with the finger" i.e. that the
thought itself is happening "in the finger" and not only in the brain.
(if that makes sense). Neither in typing nor guitar playing do I
think about what my fingers are doing. I'm just saying that thinking
and playing seem to be pretty much the same process (in real-time)
when playing acoustic instruments whereas thinking and programming
has this special latency.
That's where the Flow comes in. I agree that one can get totally
absorbed
in a coding session but that's not the same type of (embodied) flow
that we have with the instruments we play.
> Not being able to play such an instrument, I really don't know :)
>
>> In fact this is the way I'd like to program:
>> http://homepages.tesco.net/~bissell/IMAGES/tcrane3a.jpg
>
> Heh, I think Dave could arrange it :) But text input really isn't all
> that bad an alternative...
: )
And text is certainly not bad. It's great to be explicit and define
clearly
what one wants to do. Write it down in a text that a machine interprets.
Both worlds are wonderful. And for me the differences are interesting.
thr
Received on Tue Sep 05 2006 - 19:25:05 BST
