Frases célebres de Ward Cunningham
Ward Cunningham: Frases en inglés
Crucible of Creativity (2005)
Contexto: Putting a new feature into a program is important, but refactoring so new features can be added in the future is equally important. The ability to do things in the future is something that I consider suppleness, like clay your hands that accepts your expression. Programs and documents get brittle very quickly. Wiki imagines a more dynamic environment where we accept change...
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work
Contexto: The complexity that we despise is the complexity that leads to difficulty. It isn't the complexity that raises problems. There is a lot of complexity in the world. The world is complex. That complexity is beautiful. I love trying to understand how things work. But that's because there's something to be learned from mastering that complexity.
“My hope is that wiki becomes a totem for a way of interacting with people.”
Crucible of Creativity (2005)
Contexto: My hope is that wiki becomes a totem for a way of interacting with people. Tradition in the work world has been more top down, while wiki, standing for the Internet, is becoming a model for a new way of work. Largely driven by reduced communication costs, it changes what needs to be done and how it’s going to get done. I hope that the wiki nature, if not the wiki code, makes some contribution.
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Collective Ownership of Code and Text
Contexto: Often as you move comments around and have similar comments adjacent to each other, you find that half of the words can be cut out. Because a sentence says it all if the sentence is in just the right place. On Ward's wiki, the process has been called "refactoring," which is what we call the process in software. Ward's wiki is about software and it has software people on it, so they call it refactoring. Anyplace else it would probably be called editing. So on Ward's wiki, refactoring is an ongoing process. The assumption is that when something turns out to not be ideal, it will be refactored again. Everything is subject to refactoring.
“I can't tell you how much time is spent worrying about decisions that don't matter.”
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Collective Ownership of Code and Text
Contexto: I can't tell you how much time is spent worrying about decisions that don't matter. To just be able to make a decision and see what happens is tremendously empowering, but that means you have to set up the situation such that when something does go wrong, you can fix it.
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work
Contexto: I actually enjoy complexity that's empowering. If it challenges me, the complexity is very pleasant. But sometimes I must deal with complexity that's disempowering. The effort I invest to understand that complexity is tedious work. It doesn't add anything to my abilities.
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Exploring with Wiki
Contexto: I'm not a fan of classification. It's very difficult to come up with a classification scheme that's useful when what you're most interested in is things that don't fit in, things that you didn't expect. But some people decided that every page should carry classification. They came up with a scheme, based on page names, to establish a classification structure for a wiki. And these people who care about classification maintain it.
"Startup mines for riches in collaboration software" in The Portland Tribune (4 March 2008) http://www.portlandtribune.com/rethinking/story.php?story_id=120430910578805900
Contexto: When I was at Tek, I was frustrated that computer hardware was being improved faster than computer software. I wanted to invent some software that was completely different, that would grow and change as it was used. That’s how wiki came about.
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Collective Ownership of Code and Text
Contexto: It was a turning point in my programming career when I realized that I didn't have to win every argument. I'd be talking about code with someone, and I'd say, "I think the best way to do it is A." And they'd say, "I think the best way to do it is B. I'd say, "Well no, it's really A." And they'd say, "Well, we want to do B." It was a turning point for me when I could say, "Fine. Do B. It's not going to hurt us that much if I'm wrong. It's not going to hurt us that much if I'm right and you do B, because, we can correct mistakes. So lets find out if it's a mistake."
“The web has been an experiment in anonymity.”
Crucible of Creativity (2005)
Contexto: The web has been an experiment in anonymity. Conscious design of low level protocols. Lots of identity infrastructure has been created to make it an online shopping mall, which makes it unpleasant for all of us because the machinery isn’t that great.
“Everything is subject to refactoring.”
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Collective Ownership of Code and Text
Contexto: Often as you move comments around and have similar comments adjacent to each other, you find that half of the words can be cut out. Because a sentence says it all if the sentence is in just the right place. On Ward's wiki, the process has been called "refactoring," which is what we call the process in software. Ward's wiki is about software and it has software people on it, so they call it refactoring. Anyplace else it would probably be called editing. So on Ward's wiki, refactoring is an ongoing process. The assumption is that when something turns out to not be ideal, it will be refactored again. Everything is subject to refactoring.
“A wiki is always in the process of being organized.”
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Exploring with Wiki
Contexto: A wiki is always in the process of being organized. But for every hour spent organizing, two more hours are spent adding new material. So the status quo for a wiki is always partially organized.
“The complexity that we despise is the complexity that leads to difficulty.”
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work
Contexto: The complexity that we despise is the complexity that leads to difficulty. It isn't the complexity that raises problems. There is a lot of complexity in the world. The world is complex. That complexity is beautiful. I love trying to understand how things work. But that's because there's something to be learned from mastering that complexity.
“A wiki is a place to write in the same way that a party is a place to talk.”
Foreword to Wikis for Dummies
Contexto: Now, with wikis, you have a place to write. A wiki is a place to write in the same way that a party is a place to talk. There are thoughts all around you. Some are interesting, some less so. At a party or on a wiki, a word or two will be your trigger. Ideas start flowing. Talking or writing, you're among friends, the stage is set, you say your piece, it fits in, your words trigger the next thought: conversation.
“I say, forget all that and ask yourself, "What's the simplest thing that could possibly work?"”
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work
Contexto: You are always taught to do as much as you can. Always put checks in. Always look for exceptions. Always handle the most general case. Always give the user the best advice. Always print a meaningful error message. Always this. Always that. You have so many things in the background that you're supposed to do, there's no room left to think. I say, forget all that and ask yourself, "What's the simplest thing that could possibly work?"
I think the advice got turned into a command: "Do the simplest thing that could possibly work." That's a little more confusing, because there isn't this notion that as soon as you've done it, we'll evaluate it.
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), To Plan or Not To Plan
Contexto: I could say, "Wait! Wait! I know what's going to happen down here!" Well you knew what was going to happen down here. How does it help us get our job done for me to tell you what's going to happen down here? You could say, "Stop! I want to draw on the white board what we're going to do tomorrow, because I can see it coming." Well maybe I can see it coming too, but why make a commitment? It will come soon enough. So, we're certainly here and now, but I think we can become excellent predictors. It's just that we're careful not to depend upon prediction anymore than we have to.
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), To Plan or Not To Plan
Contexto: To worry about tomorrow is to detract from your work today. Time you spend thinking about tomorrow is time you're not spending thinking about what to do today. The place you leave in the code because you think you'll need it tomorrow, is actually a waste of time today — and a liability tomorrow. It does more harm than good.
“In creating wiki, I wanted to stroke that story-telling nature in all of us.”
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Exploring with Wiki
Contexto: I think there's a compelling nature about talking. People like to talk. In creating wiki, I wanted to stroke that story-telling nature in all of us. Second, and perhaps most important, I wanted people who wouldn't normally author to find it comfortable authoring, so that there stood a chance of us discovering the structure of what they had to say.
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), To Plan or Not To Plan
Contexto: Honest to God, I think Kent Beck's contribution to all this has been taking stuff that he and I discovered quietly together, or picked up from other programmers, and taking it to the limit. Taking it to the limit. And the fact that it actually holds up — and a lot of it improves — when taking it to the limit is why it should naturally be called "Extreme." Kent's single biggest contribution is being daring enough to say, "This is all that matters, and we should do it all the time."
Crucible of Creativity (2005)
Contexto: Anonymity relieves refactoring friction. Have learned that people want to sign things. But try to write in a way where you don’t have to know who said it. But when someone who is not in a giving mood uses anonymity (spammers), that abuse can drive us away from anonymity. But I hope we can drive the ill-intended out without having to give up the openness.
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Exploring with Wiki
Contexto: My specific purpose for the first wiki was to create an environment where we might link together each other's experience to discover the pattern language of programming. I had previously worked with a HyperCard stack that was set up to achieve the same kind of goal. I knew people liked to read and author in that HyperCard stack, but it was single user.
Crucible of Creativity (2005)
Contexto: People can and do trust works produced by people they don’t know. The real world is still trying to figure out how Wikipedia works. A fantastic resource. Open source is produced by people that you can’t track down, but you can trust it in very deep ways. People can trust works by people they don’t know in this low communication cost environment.
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Working the Program
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Exploring with Wiki
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), To Plan or Not To Plan
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), Collective Ownership of Code and Text
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work
