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Re: Interesting Rant [message #51311 is a reply to message #51310]

Tue, 14 November 2006 11:09

David Fanning
Messages: 11724
Registered: August 2001

Senior Member

Paul van Delst writes:

> "Formal logical proofs, and therefore programs � formal logical proofs that particular
> computations are possible, expressed in a formal system called a programming language �
> are /utterly meaningless/. To write a computer program you have to come to terms with
> this, to accept that whatever you might want the program to mean, the machine will blindly
> follow its meaningless rules and come to some meaningless conclusion. In the test the
> consistent group [good programmers] showed a pre-acceptance of this fact: they are capable
> of seeing mathematical calculation problems in terms of rules, and can follow those rules
> wheresoever they may lead. The inconsistent group [so-so programmers], on the other hand,
> looks for meaning where it is not. The blank group [bad programmers] knows that it is
> looking at meaninglessness, and refuses to deal with it."
>
> From: www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/paper1.pdf

I didn't know scientific papers like this were written
any more. What a delight! And my own personal experience
teaching IDL programming courses confirms that their
analysis is dead-on accurate. :-)

Cheers,

David
--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting, Inc.
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.")

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[Message index]

		Re: Interesting Rant By: Braedley on Wed, 15 November 2006 07:47
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Jo Klein on Wed, 15 November 2006 07:20
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Maarten[1] on Wed, 15 November 2006 07:17
		Re: Interesting Rant By: K. Bowman on Wed, 15 November 2006 06:47
		Re: Interesting Rant By: greg michael on Wed, 15 November 2006 07:03
		Re: Interesting Rant By: David Fanning on Wed, 15 November 2006 06:10
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Maarten[1] on Wed, 15 November 2006 05:25
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Robbie on Tue, 14 November 2006 17:13
		Re: Interesting Rant By: James Kuyper on Tue, 14 November 2006 15:25
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Richard Edgar on Tue, 14 November 2006 11:13
		Re: Interesting Rant By: David Fanning on Tue, 14 November 2006 11:09
		Re: Interesting Rant By: news.qwest.net on Tue, 14 November 2006 10:56
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Paul Van Delst[1] on Tue, 14 November 2006 10:36
		Re: Interesting Rant By: David Fanning on Wed, 15 November 2006 10:44
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Earl F. Glynn on Wed, 15 November 2006 09:19
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Paul Van Delst[1] on Thu, 16 November 2006 08:02
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Earl F. Glynn on Wed, 15 November 2006 09:07
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Jeff Hester on Sat, 18 November 2006 13:42
		Re: Interesting Rant By: fburton on Wed, 15 November 2006 10:24
		Re: Interesting Rant By: Paolo Grigis on Wed, 15 November 2006 09:02

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