Slightly over 2 decades ago, the inspiration to write down what I’d learned about software development struck me. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, I developed a passion for object-oriented programming, design, and the deeper origins of these: human languages, their structure, and the meanings they convey. This all led to the first journal publication of my studies and their results: Using Natural Language in Software Development.
Over the ensuing years, I chipped away at some of these ideas, eventually developing an emphasis on quality requirements, also deepening the ideas about software metaphors, and then developing the EDUCE process. All this was largely a backdrop though. My professional career as a software developer remained a primary focus, driven by the needs of supporting a family. I was also occupied with developing Bistro and then Hoot Smalltalk.
I accumulated and published the ideas about natural language through my initial web site. Then in 2019, I decided it was time to dust off these ideas and bring them forward, and started work on this new site hosted on WordPress. As I brought over my old papers, I made a startling discovery: that paper which I’d published back in 1999 was cited over 30 times by other researchers.
This discovery blew me away. I had no idea, as I’d largely lost touch with whether there was any appetite or interest in the field for such ideas. Now, I’m hoping to follow up with these other researchers, see where things have progressed, what problems have been solved, and what remain.