We use TAMA as a name for approaching the assembly of abstract machines as an intentional practice: an activity involving attention, imagination, precision, and responsibility.
The machine is not the whole practice.
Writing a program changes more than a device. It can change what its maker notices, understands, and is able to imagine. Our interest is in both the artifact and the human experience of making it.
Attention, assembly, reflection.
Attention: examine the question before rushing to produce an answer. Make assumptions visible.
Assembly: construct languages, tools, and computational processes whose behavior can be explored and tested.
Reflection: return to the consequences. What became possible? What was misunderstood? Who benefits, and who bears the cost?