Small matter of programming: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:49, 16 November 2020

Revision as of 02:18, 7 February 2021

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Example: "It's easy to change a FORTRAN compiler to compile COBOL as well; it's just a small matter of programming."}}

The IBM Jargon Dictionary defines SMOP as:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://comlay.net/ibmjarg.pdf|quote=SMOP|title=''IBM Jargon Dictionary, Tenth Edition''|publisher=[[IBM]]|year=1990|page=53|accessdateaccess-date=22 March 2019}}</ref>

{{quote|'''SMOP''' (''smop'') ''n.'' Something quite possible, but requiring unavailable resources to achieve. "Why isn't that function available in the program?" − "It's just a Simple Matter Of Programming". (The implication being that, given a few person-centuries, all things are possible.) Also '''SMOUP''' (''smoop''), a Simple Matter Of Micro-Programming (if handwritten, using a Greek mu). See also ''how hard would it be.''}}

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SMOP was among the "games" described in an article as paralleling the ''[[Games People Play (book)|Games People Play]]'' identified by Dr. [[Eric Berne]] in the field of self-help psychology.<ref>{{Citation | last = Shedley | first = Ethan I. | title = [[Big System Games]] | magazine = [[Datamation]] | volume = 17 | issue = 7 | pages = 22–25 | publisher = Technical Publishing Company, 1301 South Grove Ave., Barrington, Illinois 60010 | date = April 1, 1971 }}</ref> The game essentially consists of proposing seemingly simple adjustments to a design, leading to unexpected consequences and delays.

Alternative phrases such as '''simple matter of software''' or '''small matter of software''' are occasionally used in the same manner. However, the phrase is also used without irony<ref>{{cite journal |title= ONDI – The ON-line Device Interface |journal= Circuit Cellar INK Thethe computerComputer Applications Journal |author= John Dybowski |issue= 18 |date= January 1991 |page= 16 |url= http://www.pestingers.net/pdfs/other-computers/circuit-cellar/1990/circuit-cellar-018.pdf |quote= This turns out to be an almost trivial exercise, mainly because the computer is used to compute and the controller to control. Just a simple matter of software. }}</ref> to indicate that straightforward [[Software engineering|software development]] is all that is required to resolve some issue. This usage is often invoked when the speaker wants to contrast the implied ease of software changes with the suggested greater difficulty of making a hardware change or a change to an [[Standardization|industry standard]]. This non-ironic usage is more often invoked by [[senior management]] and [[Hardware architect|hardware engineers]], than it is by software engineers.{{Citation needed|date=August 2017}}

The term was also explored and expanded upon by computer scientist [[Bonnie Nardi]] in her 1993 book ''A Small Matter of Programming: Perspectives on End User Computing''.<ref>{{cite book