Whatever happened to Intentional Software of Simonyi?

I've been reading "Dreaming In Code" by Scott Rosenberg. 



It is a bit dated (published in 2007) but that doesn't matter because the human programmer's nature has not changed in the last 50 years. So almost every mistake comically documented there...I've made too.

One of the things that struck me was Charles Simonyi's idea for improving programming practice. A sort of interpreter of a human expert's intentions into computer code. I did not believe it would work. From the book: 
 
"Simonyi's company Intentional Software is, in a way, an attempt to apply the WYSIWYG principle to the act of programming itself. But Simonyi's enthusiastic descriptions of the brave new software world his invention will shape leave a central question unanswered: Will Intentional Software give the subject matter experts a flexible way to express their needs directly to the machine (i.e. the computer) - or will it demand that nonprogrammer experts submit themselves to the yoke of creating an ultra-detailed machine readable model? Can it help computers understand people better, or will it just force people to communicate more like computers? Simonyi is bullish. But as of this writing (2007) Intentional Software has yet to reveal its products."

One advantage of reading an old non fiction book is that you can find out what has happened to the companies and people mentioned in it, today. Intentional Software was bought by Microsoft in 2017. But, as far as I can tell, its products are nothing like what Simonyi intended, (despite the name of the company).

There was a GTD (Get Things Done) program, which seems far away from the original intention of the company. No longer under development..

And there is an Intentional Domain Workbench, which allows domain specific languages to be created. Hmm. Sounds suspiciously programmy to me.

And, as a CAD programmer, I have no idea what that could mean for me. I use Autodesk Inventor as the base CAD system, and three languages, iLogic (a castrated but wild VBA), C++ and C#. And I cannot imagine how a designer using CAD could describe his "intentions" to a computer for any even slightly complex 3d mechanical object.  I mean...how? How? I mean, you know, how?

The answer of course is by writing code, programs, iLogic macros, C# programs...And maybe  AI + generative design... Autodesk has an actual product, which produces actual designs...





The Intentional Domain Workbench looks more like a development system for Expert Systems, rather than anything really new. As this link points out, it is not clear what Intentional does. But Microsoft clearly sees some value in it.

Maybe the only domains Simonyi understands in detail are programming and word processing. Both are very text based, with concepts hovering around in the background. Knowing only those two domains he maybe imagines that all domains are text based?

I think the day may arrive when a machine writes code following the intentions of a human client. But when that day comes we'll have almost conscious computers. It will be AI hugely more powerful it currently is, and it will be generally very intelligent, not specifically intelligent in a single domain (like mechanical engineering or medicine).

Comments

  1. It brings to mind a piece of software called The Last One, released in 1981 by a company called D.J. "AI" Systems. It was cleverly marketed as the last piece of software anyone would need to buy - on the grounds that it was capable of generating everything else.

    I recall how it made quite a splash in the press - for a week or two.

    Of course the point you are making is more complex (and interesting). Who knows how good spatial and mechanical design comes about (with or without computers) ?

    But there are problem domains that start off as spatial but which, through software 'evolution' shift to a domain in which intentions can be expressed more directly. I am thinking here about the design of semiconductor devices, which originally entailed detailed and creative floor-planning but which can now be more effectively accomplished through high-level, textual specifications.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I suppose it is logic design which can be translated into text. But. Now. Search for "AutoDesk generative design", you'll be amazed at the images and real results....

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