Re: Lessons (was Re: Objects and Relations)

Interesting list.

On Feb 12, 10:27 am, Bob Badour <bbad..._at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote:
> 8. The predicate calculus is more illuminating than the set algebra.
> 9. Programmers are drawn more to the algebra than the calculus.

I would be interested to hear more about this. Certainly in my case 9 holds. Perhaps some reading is in order.

> 10. Theoretically non-updatable views should nevertheless be updatable.

Ugh, I've really got to get to work on view updatability again.

> 15. Empiricism is the only hope to understand reality.
> 16. Caution is appropriate when designing.
> 17. Wanton recklessness is appropriate when imagining.

I like the way you express these as a progression. I'm best at 17; less good at 15 and 16.

> 20. Austere mental discipline is required for real progress.

Not sure I agree here, but I guess it depends on what exactly is meant by "austere mental discipline." My own thoughts are wildly disorganized and my thinking annoyingly nonlinear. I

> > What big questions remain unanswered in your mind?
>
> 1. What are the biggest challenges to distributed optimization?

An interest of mine is abstractions for writing highly parallelized/highly-distributed software. We're looking at a lot of cores per CPU, and I don't think anyone knows how to make good use of them yet. We're also looking at ever-increasing cluster sizes, and I think efficient utilization is an open issue there too.

Marshall Received on Mon Feb 12 2007 - 13:33:39 CST