Bob La Quey wrote: > 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. >
That last part must account for a big part of difficulty and error. A related aspect is we do not really know what we want unless/until we specify how to measure it. This part strikes me as important for various reasons including how will you know when you're done! :-) Regards, ..jim -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
