slow-dog.entry18.03.2002: "David Gelernter"

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An interesting interview with the man who practically invented tuple spaces! I suppose I knew that before I read the piece, but apparently I had forgotten it. Tuple space is an idea so simple that you wonder why it needed to be invented at all, but there it is. You don't have to know anything about that to read the interview. Here's a good quote:

The operative metaphor is the most important thing in technology. The idea of the desktop, the idea of the file tree, the idea of the Web site. These have been the shaping concepts--the metaphors shape the field. If they're right, the field can be shaped right. But they can be wrong, and then the field is shaped wrong. Coming up with the right image is vastly more important than the technical details.

So new metaphors--not new code, new specs, new business clients--need to be written.

(edited to add:)I guess I should note that I don't agree with him on everything, just that I thought this was a good piece.

01:06 PM PST