[Sigia-l] Programming IAs was: Little things an IA MUST know/do

[Jon Hanna]

> Yes, but HTML is not programming, it's a markup language, as the name
> implies. That is, HTML (and its variants) gives shape/structure to
> information and is the glue to the navigational and interactive experience
> the user has with information. I don't see how you can make 'strategic'
> decisions about these (if your work does involve them) without the benefit
> of knowing something about the glue that binds all.

Yes but knowing (really knowing) that about HTML is enough. Unfortunately a
lot of people who actually code HTML as a primary part of their jobs don't
know that :(

As for programming and IA, I still think that the only problem is IAs that
*think* they know about programming and programmers that *think* they know
about IA (I'm in the awkward position of being a programmer who is
interested in IA, and reminding myself that I don't actually know that much
is sometimes difficult).

One thought I'd like to throw into this discussion is that the relationship
between programming and IA is, of course, going to change dramatically. IA
is currently a lot more scientific than programming. Some of that is likely
to always remain (new technologies generally impact more on the
possibilities and challenges to usability and organisation and less on the
code needed to make them go and hence the need for fresh experimentation
will likely always be greater with IA), but increasingly there will be
things that IAs will be able to use with little or no testing and IA will
move away from science and towards craft.

This will generally be a good thing, though it will mean that the BSers in
IA will be harder to spot. One effect of this is that as IA becomes more of
a craft, ironically leading it to share a trait with both programming and
graphic design that it currently does not, it will be harder for a
programmer or graphic designer to fool themselves into thinking they know
IA, and vice-versa, and hence easier for a true polymath to be successful in
IA as well as in another field.