David Cressey wrote:
> "Marshall Spight" <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1122961571.900054.277760_at_o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>
>>Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>>
>>>On 30 Jul 2005 14:46:38 -0700, "Marshall Spight"
>>>
>>> "That trick NEVER works!" -- Rocket J. Squirrel
>>
>>Heh. That was one wise squirrel.
>>
>>
>>
>>>>Absolutely. The only thing that'll make programmers obsolete is an
>>>>artificial intelligence smart enough to write code based solely
>>>>on reading the PM's requirements docs. And even that process will
>>>>have to be iterative, because the PMs will say, "no, that isn't
>>>>what I *meant*."
>>>
>>> Spec? What spec? And if specs do get written to that level of
>>>detail, what is the difference between that and a programming
>>>language? Some, but not a lot.
>>
>>Absolutely agree. If you can program in it, it's a programming
>>language, even if the designers of it strenuously object to
>>calling it that!
>>
>>It is as if some linguists got together and said, we have come up
>>with a TOTALLY NEW WAY of communicating without language. We have
>>developed this special techinque, where you blow breath out through
>>your mouth, and engage your lips, tongue and vocal chords to modulate
>>the sound. These sounds have been designated to carry meaning, but
>>they are NOT WORDS, they are something completely new. Thus we can
>>convey information with no equipment, and completely free of using
>>words.
>>
>
>
> Two examples come to mind:
>
> The whistling language of the Canary islanders, and Xhosa, which has as
> many clicks in it as a telegraph message.
This reminds me of an Asimov (or was it A C Clarke) short story where
the people on the stranded space ship of the future discover that 2 + 2
= 4 every time, and maybe they don't need the computers that aren't
working to get themselve unstranded...
There again, maybe that's slightly too big a tangential leap.
--
Jonathan Leffler #include <disclaimer.h>
Email: jleffler_at_earthlink.net, jleffler_at_us.ibm.com
Guardian of DBD::Informix v2005.01 -- http://dbi.perl.org/
Received on Fri Aug 12 2005 - 02:31:40 CDT
