Project continuation and final remarks

After contemplating potential outcomes of this software project, we must now confirm whether those outcomes are worth pursuing. Ultimately, we mean to establish principles of software design in opposition to the effects of divarication. We defined divarication in computer software as a recurring divergence into discrete modes of

operation. We argued that this divarication results from successive interface thresholds, that as each system interface provides a condensed point of access, it necessarily conceals the internal mechanics of that system.

A presumptive solution for divarication must exhibit an ability to persist through multiple interface iterations; otherwise, it will very quickly cease to be relevant. Any insight our method conveys must persist beyond the specific environments it occupies, otherwise it is no different than any other specialized software utility. Hence, we’ve attempted to imbue design principles in an iconic rendition, so that third parties might adopt them of their own volition. Our software platform doesn’t necessarily need to reach a degree of completion beyond the capacity to communicate and spread these principles (depicted diagrammatically in Chapter 3). We cannot guarantee that we will reach this threshold, since it relies on circumstances beyond our control. However, the odds of success will likely to improve as the platform achieves greater degrees of sophistication.

While proliferation relies at least partially on the platform’s quality (as a

comprehensive piece of software), it is an effort in futility if our design principles are not explicitly expressed through the platform’s operations. In this respect, the prototype remains insufficient. It doesn’t differ significantly in function from a typical integrated development environment (IDE). It articulates the processual link between an HTML script, the DOM interpretation of that script, and its rendered HTML form. However, the prototype offers only one venue for composition, the HTML script. In section 5.3, we discussed the absence of in-circuit compositions. A full circuit traversal must overlap with the aspect of origin. The prototype’s circuit originates with a composition in the “plain text view” and concludes with executing in the “browser view”. It touches all three

aspects, but only once each. In this case, in-circuit composition would involve

interactions with the HTML language. To make this equivalent to our established facet for compositions (the plain text view), we would require an additional display, featuring an HTML parser in text form that can also be edited, with those edits directly effecting how the platform parses HTML. Our concept for implementing this is subject to change drastically. We can consider many alternatives (custom tags, editing default tag attributes, etc.), or we may find that the HTML platform isn’t suitable for this. We want to build a platform that articulates the translation from code to program, (as is currently done with HTML), as well as the translation from language to code (by providing a venue to modify a language and to observe the consequences). If we cannot extend this out of our current prototype, we will still make use of the engine code we accumulate along the way. In either case, we won’t know which direction to take until the project advances further.

We have discussed two requisite conditions for a valid solution: persistence across iterations and a facet for in-circuit composition (to demonstrate a full circuit “cycle” in a succession of compositions). A third condition lies in the following question: “Does this platform accurately reflect the internal mechanics that comprise it?” If we assume that our design scheme is iconic with respect to self-transmission (such that observing it is sufficient to recreate it, so that it can proliferate), we must yet confirm that this conveyance induces the desired effect. In other words, does our representative platform convey software mechanisms to an extent that facilitates their replication? As instigators, this is not a question we can answer for ourselves, not entirely. We have assumed that user-adjacent alternatives to conventional software interaction can disrupt repetitive instances of stratification. Our software system is designed with flexible role

boundaries, in hopes that it won’t form its own specialized constraints. Without testing, we can’t be certain of any claims. However, we can assume that if the platform isn’t effective in conveying the properties of HTML, it can’t possibly achieve our greater goals. If access to in-circuit composition doesn’t augment its instructional capacity, we can make the same assumption. We may test several different implementations before reaching an answer, though each test should indicate which techniques are likely or unlikely to succeed.

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