Appendix B. Naur, Ehn, Musashi

Peter Naur and Pelle Ehn wrote the two most compelling and accurate accounts of software development I have yet seen. Neither is as well known as it needs to be, and Ehn's book is out of print. I am happy, therefore, to present extracts from their articles, for wider readership.

Peter Naur's "Programming as Theory Building" neatly describes the mental activity of creating software and explains the "metaphor building" activity in Extreme Programming (XP).

Pelle Ehn wrote the wonderful book Work-Oriented Design of Software Artifacts, in which he considers how Wittgenstein's idea of language games informs our view of software development.

Miyamoto Musashi, the 17th-century samurai champion, never wrote software. The competing schools of sword fighting in his day sound painfully like today's schools of methodology. He admonishes people to avoid getting infatuated with tools and schools, to use different tools and strokes for different moments, and to just "cut off the opponent's arm." His admonitions apply directly to software developmentif you realize that the opponent is the problem, not your office mate.

Naur, Ehn, Musashi

PETER NAUR, PROGRAMMING AS THEORY BUILDING		393
	"Programming as Theory Building"	393
	Applying "Theory Building"	405
PELLE EHN, WITTGENSTEIN'S LANGUAGE GAMES		407
	"On Participation and Skill"	408
	Reflections on Ehn's Writing	420
MUSASHI		420
	The Book of Five Rings	421
	Applying Musashi to Software Development	423