The problem is that once you get to defining your specs as programs themselves, they can have bugs, and the closer those specs get to maths, the less the people who actually define the specs in the first place - usually neither programmers nor mathematicians - can understand them, reducing the likelihood that anyone will notice the deviations between the spec and what users actually want.
Additionally, frankly, "reliable software" isn't something that's needed at least 99 times out of 100. Software that more-or-less gets some specific task done is. Those tasks can change from day to day, and generally require a few tries before the person who gave the task is even sure what they want, so RAD is more of a necessity than spec-based development.
Basically, we now have this entire class of information workers, and very few tools to give them that are any better than an Excel spreadsheet for the most part. I don't see the article as trying to give traditional programmers new tools, it's trying to give information workers new tools, and probably traditional programmers will find some of those useful.
> I don't see the article as trying to give traditional programmers new tools, it's trying to give information workers new tools, and probably traditional programmers will find some of those useful.
That puts it much more clearly than I managed. Thanks :)
Additionally, frankly, "reliable software" isn't something that's needed at least 99 times out of 100. Software that more-or-less gets some specific task done is. Those tasks can change from day to day, and generally require a few tries before the person who gave the task is even sure what they want, so RAD is more of a necessity than spec-based development.
Basically, we now have this entire class of information workers, and very few tools to give them that are any better than an Excel spreadsheet for the most part. I don't see the article as trying to give traditional programmers new tools, it's trying to give information workers new tools, and probably traditional programmers will find some of those useful.