"Architects Instead of Masons" for software

"Architects Instead of Masons"
der Spiegel 6/20/04

Computers: A Spanish-German company has invented a machine which writes software completely automatically - far quicker than human programmers. The principle is quite simple: first customers are briefed in the use of the system during a two-day introductory seminar. During this process they learn to express their concrete needs with the help of flow charts, which determine what the program must be capable of doing. This material is then fed into a high-performance computer in Valencia, and after a few hours the computer spits out the finished software which it assembles out of prefabricated building-blocks of computer code.