On the Aesthetics of Programming and Modeling: Part 2: Crafting the Aesthetic Model DRAFT 0.9 Paul A. Fishwick Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering University of Florida Gainesville, Florida 32611, U.S.A. fishwick@cise.ufl.edu August 24, 2000 Abstract When we marry traditional models found in computer programming and systems engineering with an artistic sensibility, we give birth to a new phenomenon: an aes- thetic model. Models addressing the modeling needs of programming and dynamic physical systems are affected by this model type. The need for the aesthetic model is strengthened with the importance behind personalized, individually-tailored, mod- els. We have designed the rube Project methodology around the use of 3D web-based virtual world construction of models. Initial results suggest that these models are instructional and pleasing, while allowing the computer science student the oppor- tunity to build virtual worlds for programming and dynamic modeling. The con- struction of these worlds provides a strong bridge connecting artists and computer scientists during the modeling lifecycle. 1 Introduction Computing and software incorporate numerous metaphors [22, 21]. When we talk of program components, we speak of “looping around a section,” “walking through code,” “piping X into Y,” “forking off processes (in Unix),” and “calling a sub-routine.” Often, these metaphors are loosely applied at the level of natural language, without making them concrete. For example, in Unix shells, one can pipe, fork, redirect and place jobs in the background. Little effort has been made to formalize and visualize these constructs, since to do so would introduce extra overhead which was undoubtedly expensive when Bell Labs first gave birth to Unix in the late 70s. Interfacing with text would have to 1