I agree with the whole mental masturbation thing. Unless something is produced and actually increases productivity then it's been a waste of time. Frankly, I don't see anything substantial every coming out of this project. It's just an academic exercise. Sorry for the harshness.
On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 4:52 AM, BGB <[email protected]> wrote: > (pardon the top-post) > > granted, I probably don't speak for others here, who may have differing > opinions, I just speak for myself... > > I am not formally involved with the project in question here, but work on > some of my own stuff in a similar domain (VM and compiler technology). > > > well, that is the question sometimes... > but, anyways, being useful is the real eventual goal in anything. > > otherwise, what does it amount to besides mental masturbation and people > congratulating their own ego / "intellect" (I have seen this before, mostly > in math and physics circles, like lacking any real value in what they are > doing, they praise themselves over how "intelligent" or "insightful" they > are vs everyone else... IMO, this is distasteful and serves no real > purpose...). > > granted, one congratulating their own efforts isn't much better... > essentially, it is like one bowing before an idol made by their own hands. > (it is at least meaningful if one can do something and admit openly that it > is all a big pile of crap...). > > > now, as for useful to who?... maybe that is another part of the question. > > maybe if my stuff is at least useful to myself, that is a starting point, > but even this is a difficult matter sometimes. if something can be useful to > others, this is better, or generally improving matters as a whole, that is > better still. > > > personally though, I see little need to "reinvent" the world, more just a > matter of fixing all these little problems that keep popping up, and maybe > adding a few more tools to the toolbox. > > it is notable how much even seemingly trivial matters, like having a tool to > automatically write ones' C & C++ headers for them, ... can make to the > overall programming experience. like, before, there is this seemingly > endless annoyance of having to add prototypes for any new functions into > their headers, and a simple tool (of maybe < 500 loc), can cause this matter > to almost entirely disappear. > > > some big elaborate "solution" may really do little against these problems, > as what we have is not so much monumental problems, so much as they are > monuments of pebbles. some grand scheme will not necessarily move such a > mountain, but something as simple as a shovel might just do the job. > > and with some amount of shoveling, one may just end up moving a mountain... > > > much like the annoyance of how people say things are "impossible", when > really, they are far from being impossible, but maybe they are a little bit > of effort. > > it is like, doing dynamic compilation (like, eval and similar) in C, or > adding many reflection type features. > there is no "magic algorithm" to make this work, but an "ugly mess of code" > pulls it all off fairly well. > likewise goes for more established technologies, like GC, dynamic types, and > lexical closures. > > as can be said, "just do it...". > > > or, at least, this is just my opinion on the matter... > > others may feel free to disagree or offer alternate opinions... > > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Dekorte" <[email protected]> > To: "Fundamentals of New Computing" <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 1:34 AM > Subject: [fonc] goals > > > > What do the folks here see as the goals of "new computing"? > Is it to find ways to use technology to help people be more productive? > Is it more about education? Is it about maximizing MIPS/Watt? Something else > entirely? > > My impression (which may be wrong) is that most of we think of in retrospect > as the really great stuff (PARC, Sutherland and Doug Engelbart's group) was > born from environments with goals of increasing productivity of real labor. > > > _______________________________________________ > fonc mailing list > [email protected] > http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc > > > _______________________________________________ > fonc mailing list > [email protected] > http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc > _______________________________________________ fonc mailing list [email protected] http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
