Parametric

Parametric 

I've just spent a couple of days checking out a leading parametric package for architectural design. It's not bad and I like the interaction with the design representation, although the so-called visual programming can result into rather cumbersome graphs - still, one (and especially beginner programmers) should appreciate the overview it offers.

My appreciation of the possibilities offered by the package are only tempered by the examples I've come across in the tutorials and even more by the code so generously made available on the Internet by so many users: it's mostly not about parametric applications; people use the package as a handy programming interface to do stuff one normally does with humble macros. It's not about parameters and constraints but about automating repetitive tasks, circumventing limitations in the editing software and the like.

One might say that this is legitimate use; if people are troubled by such issues, why not use a better programming environment to solve them? To this I can voice many objections. Firstly, editing software should be better equipped to solve all practical issues, including repetitive interactive manipulations. Secondly, using parametric software to do non-parametric stuff may create the wrong idea to many users, namely that this is all that parametric design is about. Thirdly, we are paying too much attention to trivial problems, often caused by convention and poor software design, rather than paying more attention to the relation between designing and the performance of what we design. Even if one doesn't believe in parametric design, the proposition of reducing design to the manipulation of a few parameters in a cleverly constructed network can be fascinating.