Whatever happened to Intentional Programming paradigm?

[elcaro]

TL;DR Summary

Almost all existing programming languages work at the basis of source files (text format) that gets compiled/linked into executable code or interpreted. A different approach (such as utilized by Intentional Pogramming) stores program source not in text format but in its abstract syntax tree (AST). The approach here is similar to how relational databases work, avoiding redundancy. For example objects are identified by some key, while their names are just labels stored at only one place.

Has the approach towards programming, like for instance that of Intentional Programming, been proven to be fruitfull?

 

[Filip Larsen]

I was not familiar with the specific concept of Intentional Programming before you mentioned it, but at a glance it seems to me that there is some overlap with the concept or pattern of Domain Specific Langauge in that both allow programmers to express themselves in way that is concise for a particular problem domain. I am not aware if any such overlap is accidentally or if part of IP went on to influence DSL (which seems a bit younger than IP). At least its quite common in the software business to see some of the same ideas being rehashed or rediscovered in quite many different incarnations over time.

 

[jedishrfu]

I favor the unintentional school of programming where one writes code not fully understanding the application or system and hopes not to make unintentional errors.

 

[Filip Larsen]

I favor the unintentional school of programming ...

I actually first thought OP was thinking about the principle of intentional code, i.e. that all pieces of (production) code present should be there for a known and valid reason and not just because you hit it with a hammer (e.g. trial and error) until it magically worked. The hammer is reserved for experimental code only.

 

[elcaro]

I actually first thought OP was thinking about the principle of intentional code, i.e. that all pieces of (production) code present should be there for a known and valid reason and not just because you hit it with a hammer (e.g. trial and error) until it magically worked. The hammer is reserved for experimental code only.

Normally code is written by monkeys, but you need a whole bunch of them and lot of time, before some unintentional valid code emerges...