Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 8:00 AM, Fogus mefo...@gmail.com wrote: core.unify v0.5.2 Release Notes === core.unify is a Clojure contrib library providing the following features: * Factory functions for constructing unification binding, subst, and unification functions, with or without occurs checking * Packaged functions for unification binding, subst, and unification functions, with or without occurs checking, recognizing variables tagged as symbols prefixed with `?` characters Yes, but what exactly are these unification binding, subst, and unification functions? In other words, I'm a developer. I have some concrete problems. Which of those can this library help solve, and how? What, in short, is it good for? Unfortunately, the description you provided seems to use solution domain language only, not problem domain. Someone who doesn't know what this unification stuff is all about won't have any idea whether or how this library might be useful to them. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
Yes, but what exactly are these unification binding, subst, and unification functions? This is information that seems a bit odd to include in a set of release notes, but I suppose a link to where such information could be found is warranted. In other words, I'm a developer. I have some concrete problems. Which of those can this library help solve, and how? I have no idea what kinds of problems you're trying to solve. Unfortunately, the description you provided seems to use solution domain language only, not problem domain. Someone who doesn't know what this unification stuff is all about won't have any idea whether or how this library might be useful to them. This is a 0.5.2 set of release notes meant as information for people currently using the library. If you want more information on unification then you'll need to wait until a later release. Google also helps too. :-) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 1:45 PM, Michael Fogus mefo...@gmail.com wrote: Yes, but what exactly are these unification binding, subst, and unification functions? This is information that seems a bit odd to include in a set of release notes, but I suppose a link to where such information could be found is warranted. It's usual for release notes to at least link to more complete documentation, but not uncommon for them to also have a quick summary paragraph explaining what the application or library does or is for. Particularly if they get posted to lists like this, where they might be the way someone first hears about it. More generally, Foo is a library providing the following features: is usually followed by something that developers can immediately understand as something useful, such as DOM parsing or raytracing or GUI framework. This seemed to be more mathematical in character, or perhaps described in terms of its implementation or some other abstraction, rather than in terms of what a prospective user of the library would actually use it for. In other words, I'm a developer. I have some concrete problems. Which of those can this library help solve, and how? I have no idea what kinds of problems you're trying to solve. Er ... how about what problems or tasks would cause a developer who already knew all about your library to reach for it in preference to some other tool, and why? then. Unfortunately, the description you provided seems to use solution domain language only, not problem domain. Someone who doesn't know what this unification stuff is all about won't have any idea whether or how this library might be useful to them. This is a 0.5.2 set of release notes meant as information for people currently using the library. If you want more information on unification then you'll need to wait until a later release. That doesn't help grow your user base/beta tester base/whatever, though, does it? Google also helps too. :-) Not really, not with a single fairly generic word like unification. Right off the top of my head I can think of several political causes, a few format standardization efforts, and at least one Star Trek episode with that word in the name, of which the format standardization efforts are the only ones that sound like they could plausibly be relevant here. No doubt there's lots more uses of the word and most of those are also not likely to be relevant. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 11:00 AM, Cedric Greevey cgree...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 1:45 PM, Michael Fogus mefo...@gmail.com wrote: Google also helps too. :-) Not really, not with a single fairly generic word like unification. #1 result: wikipedia, which has a disambiguation page with the second entry: Unification (computer science), the act of identifying two terms with a suitable substitution That page in turn says: Unification, in computer science and logic, is an algorithmic process by which one attempts to solve the satisfiability problem. The goal of unification is to find a substitution which demonstrates that two seemingly different terms are in fact either identical or just equal. Unification is widely used in automated reasoning, logic programming and programming language type system implementation. I don't know whether that definition helps you? It's hard for me to know what most developers know about unification because I've worked in Prolog so I suspect I'm an edge case (and I'm excited about core.unify - I just haven't needed it in my production code yet). -- Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ World Singles, LLC. -- http://worldsingles.com/ Perfection is the enemy of the good. -- Gustave Flaubert, French realist novelist (1821-1880) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
Not really, not with a single fairly generic word like unification. In the amount of time that you spent lecturing me on good library release note practices you could have learned what unification was, read the code, and decided if it filled any of your needs. Hint. My library has very little if nothing to do with Star Trek. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 2:08 PM, Sean Corfield seancorfi...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 11:00 AM, Cedric Greevey cgree...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 1:45 PM, Michael Fogus mefo...@gmail.com wrote: Google also helps too. :-) Not really, not with a single fairly generic word like unification. #1 result: wikipedia, which has a disambiguation page with the second entry: Unification (computer science), the act of identifying two terms with a suitable substitution That page in turn says: Unification, in computer science and logic, is an algorithmic process by which one attempts to solve the satisfiability problem. The goal of unification is to find a substitution which demonstrates that two seemingly different terms are in fact either identical or just equal... In other words, a particular one out of ten links, followed by some other link, followed by a particular one out of some *more* links, leads to something abstruse and theoretical that *still* has no immediately obvious implications for any real-world programming project other than, possibly, a compiler's optimizer or type inference system. And meanwhile there's nothing in what you wrote to eliminate the possibility that other chains of links from the Google search wouldn't lead to other plausibly-relevant subject matters. Such as the standard-setting efforts and suchlike. :) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
unify, but I have no idea where to begin! Having short description and some simple use cases in announce would be great. I do not disagree. Those elements will be in place by the 1.0.0 release (as listed in the planned section). In the meantime, patches welcomed. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 2:16 PM, Michael Fogus mefo...@gmail.com wrote: Not really, not with a single fairly generic word like unification. In the amount of time that you spent lecturing me on good library release note practices you could have learned what unification was, read the code, and decided if it filled any of your needs. Perhaps, given mind-reading powers and one or two other unusual capabilities, I might have been able to do so, yes. :) Hint. My library has very little if nothing to do with Star Trek. Talk about completely missing the point. I think I was pretty clear myself that that was the case; I was just indicating that the Google search would produce a thicket of results in which it would be difficult to find one that actually could definitely enlighten as to what your library was all about, *both* due to the amount of obviously-irrelevant clutter in said results *and* because there'd be multiple plausibly-relevant but dissimilar candidates after said clutter was mentally weeded out. The search query would need to be narrower than just the word unification, in other words. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 3:20 PM, Cedric Greevey cgree...@gmail.com wrote: Talk about completely missing the point. I had no idea what core.unify would be used for either. However, the email included a link to the github page, and the Readme on the github page included a link called more information and several other references. If you chose not to go down that path, it's your own fault. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 3:43 PM, Jay Fields j...@jayfields.com wrote: On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 3:20 PM, Cedric Greevey cgree...@gmail.com wrote: Talk about completely missing the point. I had no idea what core.unify would be used for either. However, the email included a link to the github page, and the Readme on the github page included a link called more information and several other references. If you chose not to go down that path, it's your own fault. Neverminding the amount of indirection (once again), there's the minor matter that nobody is likely to click through to the github page of something unless they're already looking to download it, or maybe even modify it. You have to pitch people on the potential benefits of downloading your library *before* they click the download link for it, or they mostly never will. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
Re: ANN: core.unify v0.5.2
You have to pitch people on the potential benefits of downloading your library *before* they click the download link for it, or they mostly never will. Sold. I've learned my lesson. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Clojure group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
