Metaprogramming (management)
Encyclopedia
Metaprogramming is the name of a management technique invented by Charles Simonyi
(who also developed Hungarian notation
) for organizing the work of a team of programmers. In a 2002 news item http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/18/1032054855232.html, The Age noted:
In the 1992 book Accidental Empires
(ISBN 0-88730-855-4), Robert X. Cringely
gave this description:
Charles Simonyi
Charles Simonyi is a Hungarian-American computer software executive who, as head of Microsoft's application software group, oversaw the creation of Microsoft's flagship Office suite of applications. He now heads his own company, Intentional Software, with the aim of developing and marketing his...
(who also developed Hungarian notation
Hungarian notation
Hungarian notation is an identifier naming convention in computer programming, in which the name of a variable or function indicates its type or intended use...
) for organizing the work of a team of programmers. In a 2002 news item http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/18/1032054855232.html, The Age noted:
- "Simonyi, 54, introduced the concept of metaprogramming at Microsoft, turning it into what people sometimes referred to as a software factory. This was something on which he had written a thesis. The metaprogramming concept did not work out in practice...."
In the 1992 book Accidental Empires
Accidental Empires
Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date , is a book written by Mark Stephens under the pen name Robert X. Cringely about the founding of the personal computer industry and the history of Silicon Valley...
(ISBN 0-88730-855-4), Robert X. Cringely
Robert X. Cringely
Robert X. Cringely is the pen name of both technology journalist Mark Stephens and a string of writers for a column in InfoWorld, the one-time weekly computer trade newspaper published by IDG.- Biography :...
gave this description:
- "Simonyi's dissertation was an attempt to describe a more efficient method of organizing programmers to write software... the metaprogrammer was the designer, decision maker, and communication controller in a software development group.... individual progammers were allowed to make no design decisions about the project. All they did was write the code as described by the metaprogrammer.... A programmer with a problem or a question would take it to the metaprogrammer, who could come up with an answer or transfer the question to another programmer..."