Re: A database theory resource - ideas

From: Marshall <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com>
Date: 17 Mar 2007 18:53:51 -0700
Message-ID: <1174182831.551687.217660_at_y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>


On Mar 17, 2:51 pm, "Tony D" <tonyisyour..._at_netscape.net> wrote:
> On Mar 17, 5:09 am, Bob Badour <bbad..._at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> > On the programming side of things, one can look for names like Sipser,
> > Knuth, Dijkstra, Plauger, Cargill, Stroustrop, Maguire, Ullman again,
> > Aho, Ritchie, Kernighan, a bunch more from both Bell Labs and Xerox
> > PARC. While things are much better on the programming side, the signal
> > to noise ratio is still abysmal.
>
> Kernighan ??? Ritchie ????? That pair are immediately barred for
> between them producing an abomination above/beneath all others and
> then daring to write an utterly godforsaken book about it ("The C
> Programming Language") and setting us all back untold years.

Oh, pooh. The problem isn't Kernighan, nor Ritchie, nor C itself. There are perfectly good uses for a low-level programming language. The problem is the legions who came afterwards who didn't recognize C for what it was, and instead turned it in to the One True Way.

> And in the same breath as genuine giants like Knuth and Dijkstra too.

I am inclined to think Knuth overrated. But that's just me; I think Stanley Kubrick is overrated too.

> On the FP side, Simon Peyton Jones and Philip Wadler are usually well
> worth a read.

Cardelli? Hello? How have we come this far and no one has mentioned Cardelli?

Peyton-Jones is uber-interesting. Wadler mostly just confuses me these days; is he playing an elaborate joke on us or what?

Marshall Received on Sun Mar 18 2007 - 02:53:51 CET

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