Python component model

[Magnus Lycka]

sturlamolden wrote:
> There is a whole generation of computer users out there scared stiff of
> using the keyboard. Soon, computers will not have a keyboard at all.
> The trend is perhaps more pronounced among managers not writing code
> themselves, but "taking decisions" about which tools to use.

Is it just me, or does someone else feel that this is like
using magnetic letters on a refrigerator door instead of
a pen and paper. My two year old son thinks those magnetic
letters are fun, but then he can't write at all. My seven
year old has certainly switched to pen and paper (or computer)
for 99% of his writing. Sure, they have their use--it might be
more effective to write TENNIS with colorful letters across
the fridge door in some situation, but most of the time, pen
and paper is much more useful. You never run out of letters,
and it's easy to draw lines or arrows, complement the text
with a little picture etc. The cost for learning the skill
to write readable letters is well compensated for...

We recently released a toolkit for interfacing our systems
with legacy systems, and very soon, people started using it
in way we had never expected. I suppose that could be possible
with a "visual" tool too, but it seems to me that those tools
are typically fairly limited, just as computer based role-playing
games are much more limited than the ones played around a table
with a good flesh-and-blood game master who can respond to any
idea you come up with at the spur of the moment.