Book Review A Small Matter of Programming Perspectives on End User Computing by Bonnie A. Nardi Book Review by Rebecca E. Grinter "A Small Matter of Programming" by Bonnie Nardi provides an evocative description of the future of product developed software. She believes that users empowered by software which takes advantage of their work place skills, can and will create, manipulate, and share a variety of documents, forms, and charts easily. A synthesis of her research, this book stands as an engaging vision of the future which academics and practitioners alike can learn from. The book is one hundred and sixty-two pages long, divided into seven chapters, an appendix, preface and index with references. In this space, Nardi takes the reader on a tour of her thesis, which includes discussions of conversation analysis, knitting patterns, spreadsheets and CAD systems. Her point is that end-users will develop their own applications, with others, when they have programming languages which reflect their task domain, and an appropriate visual framework to view their work. Characteristically of the book, Nardi makes her statement in the preface, allowing the reader to develop a strong sense of direction but not giving away the details of
/lp/association-for-computing-machinery/book-review-a-small-matter-of-programming-perspectives-on-end-user-QAybrjmeTk