Re: Lessons (was Re: Objects and Relations)

From: Bob Badour <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca>
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 21:29:47 GMT
Message-ID: <f%4Ah.5637$R71.85660@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca>

Marshall wrote:

> Interesting list.

Where's your inventory?

> 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.

I am not sure much reading is available. 8 & 9 were observations I read (if I recall correctly) in something Chris Date wrote a decade or so ago--perhaps it was Hugh Darwen or Date was quoting Darwen. At first, I did not understand the observations, but more and more I am learning to appreciate them.

I wonder if the phenomenon has anything to do with set theory and graphical analysis being taught at highschool but not predicate calculus. I am convinced highschool curricula (at least at the advanced level) need to teach a lot more statistics and logic. As it stands now, I don't believe one will learn useful statistics even at the undergraduate level.

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

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

I have concluded that one will never create a single theoretically 'right way' to handle view updates. I have seen several attempts over the years with varying levels of utility. None of them would really achieve logical independence out of the box. At best, I think we will settle for a default way to update any given view but must have some way to override that.

>>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

You have me intrigued about what might have followed that trailing 'I'.

Do you make real progress? Do you even want to make real progress?

You have demonstrated remarkable comprehension of advanced topics in language design and a sound comprehension of various features in isolation. That suggests considerable mental discipline to me.

I don't know why nonlinearity annoys you. The bulk of human cognition happens at the subconscious level. It sounds like your subconscious works really well. Consider it a gift.

>>>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.

I haven't even begun to look at the subject which is why it is a big unanswered question in my mind. Received on Mon Feb 12 2007 - 15:29:47 CST