Sandman
In article <h6dn999srfsq48j332ccm5mft6ppehqb6p@4ax.com>, Eric Stevens wrote:

Eric Stevens
Would you like to consider that you have a narrow view of the application of the computer?

There is much more to it than 'apps'.

nospam
why does an architect need to know how to program?

Eric Stevens
He has to understand what programming is all about.

Sandman
Why?

Eric Stevens
Because the proper use of computer tools is now an essential part of a designers skill set.

Sandman
Agreed. But "proper use" of a computer does not mean that one has to understand programming, however.

Eric Stevens
No one tool will look after the entire needs of a project and they have have to be woven together to function as a whole.

Sandman
Also agreed. But few architects handle the computing task for every part of the project anyway.

Eric Stevens
The designer has to know what can be done and most importantly what can't.

Sandman
To some extent, sure. This has nothing to do with programming though. As a programmer, I can tell the architext what the limitations of our environemtn is and he would just have to take them into account. He doesn't need to know the first thing about programming to do so.

For instance, if I have a DWG plotter routine then I could tell him that he can't use truetype fonts since my program doesn't support truetype. That's all the information he needs.

Eric Stevens
The more the task can be automated, the more the designer can concentrate on the design.

Sandman
The designer should always concentrate on the design, it's the programmer's task to enable the next step, and communicate whatever limitations there is in that step.

I bet there are architects that are also programmers, but that's hardly the norm, and would be a very niche case.

Now, some CAD software has programming languages built in, like MEL scripts and LISP (even VBA and .NET) which would greatly help the architect in his work, but those aren't native programming languages (except .NET I suppose) and still - few architexts employ them in their daily work, and there is no real "need" for them to do so.

AppleScript on the Mac is a really simple language for automating tasks, yet few use it because well, the tools work just fine for them as they are. And MEL/LISP is a LOT more complicated than AppleScript, so the threshold is even higher. And C/C++ is even MORE complicated.

Point is - if you're an architect, or a designer, or a photographer, you want to spend your time doing what you like doing - not spend your time writing small utilities and learning how to program C++.

Now, if you're like me and you already know how to script stuff, then it's a great help! But this isn't true - or needed - for most, including architects.