Microprogramming: A New Way to Program

All jobs done by large monolithic software programs can be done better by a collection of small microprograms (mostly 1 line long) working together.

Building these microprograms, aka microprogramming, is different than traditional programming. Microprogramming is more like gardening: one is constantly introducing new microprograms and removing microprograms that aren't thriving. Microprogramming is like organic city growth, whereas programming is like top-down centralized city planning.

Microprogramming requires new languages. A language must make it completely painless to concatenate, copy/paste, extend and mix/match different collections of microprograms. Languages must be robust against stray characters and support parallel parsing and compilation. Languages must be context sensitive. Languages must be homoiconic. Automated integration tests of frequently paired microprograms are essential.

Microprograms start out small and seemingly trivial, but evolve to be far faster, more intelligent, more agile, more efficient, and easier to scale than traditional programs.

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