Re: [9fans] TeX: hurrah!

["Patrick Kelly" <kameo76890@gmail.com>]

>From: 9fans-bounces@9fans.net [mailto:9fans-bounces@9fans.net] On Behalf Of Karljurgen Feuerherm
>Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 1:11 PM
>To: 'Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs'
>Subject: Re: [9fans] TeX: hurrah!
>
>This doesn't make much sense to me. Object-orientation in itself is simply another level of data abstraction. And for the rest, I think "provability" is more theoretical than practical, other than the >most trivial programmes.

You are correct in saying OOP is just another type of abstraction. I would be correct in saying a hammer is just another type of tool, but would you use a hammer to repair circuitry? I would be correct in saying a nuclear missile is just another weapon, but would you use that when a gun would suffice? Was Hiroshima and Nagasaki just simple warfare?

There are proper tools for a given job. Using the correct tool is a good thing, using the wrong tool causes problems. There are places where objects are useful, yet most OOP programmers use objects everywhere. When representing non-objects as objects, problems arise.

Quite the contrary, provability is most important in the most complex programs. Math is all about proving things, be it simple or complex. If a given formulae is not provable, it's damn near useless, but when a program isn't provable, it's just shrugged off. 
 
>I'm beginning to get the impression (or perhaps more accurately am increasingly getting the impression) that the plan9 community is reactionary rather than progressive... not a good characteristic >if one is trying to make advances in comparison with one's predecessors...

Do not let your impression of a few people effect your view of the Plan 9 community.

Have you look at what Plan 9 has done? I would hardly go to say we are reactive. Every other system has reacted to what Plan 9 has done, not the other way around.

Communities are made up of humans, humans are complex systems. Complex systems cannot simply be labeled reactive or progressive.

I'm beginning to get the impression people love to troll Plan 9, more than they love to better computing, more than they love to learn from what Plan 9 has done, more than they love to solve problems, the whole reason behind computer science.

>K
>
>>>> "Patrick Kelly" kameo76890@gmail.com> 16/04/2010 12:47:03 pm >>
>
>Object-Orientation reduces static provability. May be I'm crazy, but I like it when you can prove that a program is only going to do what it was told to do.