On 9 May 2014, at 4:51 pm, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi David,
> What were the problems you were trying to solve,  and specifically where
> and why did you hit a wall on them?
> Best regards,
> Terry

Terry,

I would love to answer your question (at least that bit of it that is not subject to confidentiality agreements, and which is not highly valuable IP), but to do so would require us both to be on the same page, as it were. Sadly though, I don't think we are even in the same book. 

The question then is how might I get you to join me in 'my book'?

The first thing you would need to do is drop your habitual disdain for Art and Design—one that you unfortunately share with some other senior members of this list. 

Second, and this is directed at everyone on this list, you would need to at least try see the world from my point of view. I don't expect that to happen any time soon. This list quickly becomes dysfunctional in the face of different points of view.

Third, you would need to follow the development of a set of ideas and practices which I started working on in *Visual Thinking* in 1978, further developed in *Learning & Visual Communication* in 1981, and took to the next stage in *In search of Semiotics* 1981. When I began work at CRI in 1985, I had already developed the basic ideas for the Advanced Graphic Logic program. At that stage we started seriously developing the computer language side of the program. We received direct funding from the Finance Industry, Apple Computers and the Australian Government to undertake the work. This resulted in software for the Mac platform. 

But we hit a brick wall, because the Graphic Logics we were trying to code could not be written using the programming languages available to us and which still form the backbone of programming languages available today. Put simply, we could articulate and specify a set of rules, but these rules could not be coded even at the most basic level without massive computational overheads, and with a more advanced level of logic and rule variation the task became impossible.

I wrote a piece recently which gives a glimpse of some of the issues:
Sless D. (2007)
Designing Philosophy
Visible Language 41.1 pp 101-126.

Here is a rough analogy. The game of chess involves a set our rules and heuristics which can be coded into a computer and the computer can do a pretty good job of playing the game against humans. But the type of rules and heuristics are absolutely constrained. Imagine a situation in which the human player could change the rules and heuristics or introduce new variations to them in the middle of the game. That is what graphic designers and users do all the time when creating and reading even simple layouts. 

To overcome this would require as a starting point new type of programming language based on principles that do not operate in any of the existing computational systems available for programming. We managed to get approval in principle for government approved research grants from industry, but the timing was wrong for us to pursue it. So we have never progressed this work to the next stage. To do so would require mathematicians to sit down and learn something about what designers do. Hence my belief that mathematicians need designers as well as the other way round.

In the meantime we have written a large number of rule systems using existing programming languages that drive some pretty sophisticated automated, though limited, graphic production systems for such things as bills, letters and notices and instructions, with output to print, desktop and mobile devices.

Warm wishes to all from a spectacularly beautiful autumn in Melbourne.

David
-- 

blog: http://communication.org.au/blog/
web: http://communication.org.au

Professor David Sless BA MSc FRSA
CEO • Communication Research Institute •
• helping people communicate with people •

Mobile: +61 (0)412 356 795
Phone: +61 (0)3 9005 5903
Skype: davidsless

60 Park Street • Fitzroy North • Melbourne • Australia • 3068



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