I think it is a mistake for a programmer to get too involved in telling the computer how to do something rather that what he wants done. Today maybe the L1 cache optimization might make string map the most efficient way for that particular problem but a year or so from now as hardware and software evolve that may change. If the programmer told the computer only what he wants then the language implementers can adapt newer techniques thus preventing his code from becoming obsolete.
On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 3:41 PM, Joey K Tuttle <[email protected]> wrote: > At 14:21 -0700 2009/08/31, Roger Hui wrote: > > > The best rejoinder I've heard to the referenced discussion is, > >> "If I'm so smart, why don't you listen to what I'm telling you?" > > > >I recently saw that in a video of Dick Lathwell, who attributed > >it Ken Iverson. > > > >Ken told me once about the "indefensible attack": > >Yeah, it [APL] is easy for you; you guys are geniuses. > >(What are we going to say? No, we are not geniuses? > >No, it's not easy for us either? ...) > > > >Funny that he'd tell me about the attack but not the > >defense, which would have been "If you think I am > >so smart, why don't you follow my advice?". > > I accept Dick's attribution, but my memory of it was as said by Dick > himself in just such a discussion with the VSAPL/VSPC development > group in Palo Alto c. 1975 -- I had to restrain myself to keep a > business like appearance.... > > Looking back, the going's on around VSPC were quite amusing .... One > "friend of APL" told a customer, (in Calgary) where IBM wanted to > install VSPC, that Sharp APL might corrode the circuitry in their > mainframe. (I'm not making this up!) > > - joey > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
