Re: [Caml-list] OCaml troll on Slashdot

From: Yoann Padioleau <padiolea@irisa.fr>
To: "William D.Neumann" <wneumann@cs.unm.edu>
Cc: padiolea@irisa.fr, "Jon Harrop" <jon@ffconsultancy.com>,
	caml-list@inria.fr
Subject: Re: [Caml-list] OCaml troll on Slashdot
Date: 15 Mar 2005 23:12:34 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <m34qfceey5.fsf@ryxa.irisa.fr> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <d88ae05d5b552b345bb5f51cc943027f@cs.unm.edu>

"William D.Neumann" <wneumann@cs.unm.edu> writes:

> On Mar 15, 2005, at 2:03 PM, padiolea@irisa.fr wrote:
> 
> > where ?
> 
> http://wwwfun.kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~garrigue/garden2.ml
> 
> > Yes but this ocaml code use array ?
> 
> Lists and arrays.  Each where it's appropriate.

I agree.

> 
> > In that case it supports what the "troll" said, that is
> > the resulting code is no more "functionnal".
> 
> To which, I'd assume the majority response would be, "So?"  

So some of his arguments are right. You make object "So?" but 
we could continue a long moment that way.

> And to
> which I might add Benjamin Pierce's comment, "Most arguments about
> 'What is the essence of...?' do more to reveal the prejudices of the
> participants than to uncover any objective truth about the topic of
> discussion.  Attempts to define the term 'object-oriented' are no
> exception."  Sure, he wrote it in regards to object oriented
> programming, but it fits functional programming very well 

Well not trying to define stuff is better ? 

> (a  polymorphic comment, indeed).

:)

> 
> >  He is not a newbie, this garden optimization problem is not that
> > simple.
> 
> Well, a five minute glance at the code seems to indicate a very
> shallow understanding of OCaml.  He might be a wizard in other aspects
> of programming/CS, but dollars to donuts 

"dollars to donuts" ? 
I am an american newbie so I have no idea of what it means :)

> he's very much an OCaml newbie.

He is far better than most of my students.
It all depends on what you call a newbie.
We are all the newbie of someone else (except perhaps xavier leroy, eijiro sumii and company).

> 
> > Perhaps the python/perl/ruby community are successful because they
> > answer to those "trolls" who often then become the first
> > advocater of the langage who in turn answer to other "trolls" which
> > make the community bigger and bigger.
> 
> I dunno.  A couple of days ago there was a /. story about the new
> Randal Schwartz book, and at least one person was complaining about
> the perl newsgroups/mailing lists being full of unfriendly, unhelpful
> folk.

yes but there is also full of friendly helpful folks.

> 
> William D. Neumann
> 
> "You've got Rita Marlowe in the palm of your hand."
> "Palm of my hand?  You haven't seen Rita Marlowe..."
> 
> 		-- Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
> 
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-- 
Yoann  Padioleau,  INSA de Rennes, France   www.irisa.fr/prive/padiolea/
Opinions expressed here are only mine. Je n'écris qu'à titre personnel.
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