Re: [TUHS] Tech Sq elevator (Was: screen editors)

[Jon Steinhart <jon@fourwinds.com>]

Kevin Bowling writes:
> I honestly can't tell if this is genius level snark :) in case you're
> sincere we generally go to great lengths to build up data types and
> structures (in C lingo) when programming only to tear those useful
> attributes off often at inopportune times.  Basically type
> systems/type safety have been too expensive or too difficult to use
> through history.
>
> Think of sitting at an SQL prompt as a counterpoint.  You can pretty
> easily get at the underlying representation and relationships of the
> data and the output is just a side effect.  Not saying SQL is the
> ultimate answer, just that most people have a bit of experience with
> it and UNIX so can mentally compare the two for themselves and see the
> pros and cons to preserving the underlying representations.
>
> Regards,
> Kevin
>
> On Sun, Jan 12, 2020 at 1:34 PM Jon Steinhart <jon@fourwinds.com> wrote:
> >
> > Kevin Bowling writes:
> > > This is kind of illustrative of the '60s acid trip that perpetuates in
> > > programming "Everything's a string maaaaan".  The output is seen as
> > > truth because the representation is for some reason too hard to get at
> > > or too hard to cascade through the system.
> > >
> > > There's a total comedy of work going on in the unix way of a wc
> > > pipeline versus calling a length function on a list.  Nonetheless, the
> > > unix pipeline was and is often magnitude easier for a single user to
> > > get at.  This kind of thing is amusing and endearing to me about our
> > > profession in modern day.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Kevin
> >
> > Can you please elaborate?  I read your post, and while I can see that it
> > contains English words I can't make any sense out of what you said.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >         Jon

I wasn't being snarky.  You said

  "The output is seen as truth because the representation is for some
  reason too hard to get at or too hard to cascade through the system."

I honestly have no idea what that means.

Likewise, 

  "There's a total comedy of work going on in the unix way of
  a wc pipeline versus calling a length function on a list."

I just don't know what you mean.

Jon