[Oberon] a module a page (keeps the mind sane)?

[Chris Burrows]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Oberon [mailto:oberon-bounces at lists.inf.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of
> John R. Strohm
> Sent: Sunday, 4 November 2018 8:45 AM
> To: paulreed at paddedcell.com; ETH Oberon and related systems
> Subject: Re: [Oberon] a module a page (keeps the mind sane)?
> 
> In "Psychology of Computer Programming", from the early 1970s or so,
> Weinberg reported that studies showed that programmer comprehension
> generally dropped dramatically the moment the programmer had to
> scroll the edit window or turn the page on a listing.  This gave rise
> to the "one page, one module" guideline.
> 

That is true. However, what has changed from the 1970's is the number of
lines than can be viewed on an edit window without scrolling. The early VDU
screens used to be 24 lines by 80 characters. With one of my 20" monitors in
portrait mode I can easily read 125 lines by 80 characters using a 9pt
Consolas monospaced font. That still leaves enough room for the Astrobe
title bar, menu, toolbar, tab headings, status bar and procedure navigation
/ import list pane.

Note that in those days a complete application would often have been in a
single file and the term 'module' would have been referring to a logical
unit equivalent to one of today's procedures. 

Regards,
Chris

Chris Burrows
CFB Software
http://www.astrobe.com/RISC5