** Reply to message from Gabriel Sechan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:40:05 -0500
I don't know what Gabe used for email but somehow, that message had absolutely no formating. I've tried to get the just of what formatting was intended just to read it and this email is just to get that formatting out to the list in the event anyone else had a problem reading it. > > Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:34:50 -0700> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: > > [email protected]> Subject: Re: Wise men and the elephant> > On > > Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 5:42 AM, Todd Walton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:> > On > > Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 2:34 PM, Bob La Quey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:> > > > > Agreed. Let's try and figure out what programming is,> > > and what > > problem it is trying to solve. I would be> > > satisfied with a decent > > statement of that.> >> > Translating? Making human wants known to the > > machine. Successfully> > writing out what you want the machine to do, in > > the machine's> > language. So, programming is inherently functional. We > > don't program > > computers to tell them we love them or just to say, "I had a good > > day". We program to make something happen. Programming is action. > >> > Though I suppose sometimes, when we program, we're just stating facts. > > But always facts relevant to what we're about to tell the computer to > > do. > >> > So... programming is telling a machine what to do? Seems pretty > > straightforward. > >> >> >> > -todd > > If it is so straight forward then why is it so hard to do? > > I think it is because we do not know how to do it well. > Which goes back to the fact that despite your statement > do not know what it is we are trying to do or how to do it. > Its hard to do because computers can't assume or apply outside knowledge Lets try giving a simple command to an imaginary 3 year old. "Get me that red book over there". Simple command. Should be easy. However, to run the instruction the child makes a huge number of assumptions and uses of outside knowledge: 1)He has to know what a book is 2)He has to recognize objects as books 3)He has to know what red is, and recognize a red book 4)He has know where "there" is 5)He has to know how to walk to the red book 6)He has to know that to get an item, you must pick it up and bring it back 7)He has to know how to pick an item up 8)He has to know how to carry it 9)He has to walk back 10)If there are more than 1 red book, he has to guess which one or ask for clarification A computer can't assume any of that. This is both a blessing and a curse - it makes programming it more difficult, but also deterministic - it can't make the wrong guess or assumption. Gabe Doug -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
