Ancient Music And Software Development
Every economic activity has its jargon and secret rights and mysteries held back from the common lot. Technology, particularly that driven by software, has its own, but with a disproportionate impact on the environment that supports it. A serendipitous radio program demonstrated this great divide in an unusual way.
Interesting how we learn things. The other day I was listening to KUSC’s Arts Alive program while on my way to a meeting, and one of the program’s segments had to do with musical notation. Turns out that prior to about 1500, European music was not written down anywhere near what we’re used to today. Typically, a ‘musical score’ had one or two horizontal lines, with marks of various kinds above and below, with precious little else.
The notational simplicity match that of the instruments, no two of which sounded the same, and could never stay in tune to begin with. Truth is, no one knows, or has a reasonable idea, of what the music so simply documented sounded like, according to some USC professors. More interestingly, the musical scores that have survived (quite a few it turns out) are way too short for musical performances that are known to have been long from other sources.
So, how did musicians know what, exactly, to play? The best the musical historians can piece together is that the musical scores were not scores as such, but more akin to mnemonic aids. In short, the musician would already know the music, and the scores were reminders of what they were taught as apprentices.
It struck me that much of the software foisted on the public today is much like these musical scores. No detail, cryptic, requiring prior experience and training in the arcana, if not outright clairvoyance. Software that has such steep usage learning curves that have to be retraced again and again as new releases come out can make an ordinary user (read customer) feel as abused as a newly indentured medieval apprentice. Software designers whom Gary Kawasaki once described as believing that the universe rotated around them when they deigned to change a light bulb. Programmers who assume that their assumptions are universally recognized and accepted. A whole host of those imagining they’re overly bright whose work makes it exceedingly difficult for regular users of their wares to accomplish their work. Hugh support infrastructures designed to frustrate and irritate people who’ve paid good money to use the tools that need the support out of the box.
© Copyright 2009 Chuck Brooks for FutureWare SCG
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Tags: software development