OT: Happy Birthday Larry Niven

[Andrew Dalke]

Brad Clements:
>As I recall.. Moties are essentially genetically designed for their
>particular task. .As in the case of the vehicle drivers who swerved around
>each other and looked like they were going to crash, but didn't.
>
>If they used Perl, they would crash.
>
>Besides, Motie engineers could recombine essential elements quickly to suit
>their needs, in an efficient manner. That smacks of "batteries included"
and
>I'd say Perl code could not be recombined..

I thought Motie ships were wierdly designed.  Ahh, here's a quote from
"The Mote in God's Eye", p70 in my paperback copy

  ... but some of the intact mechanisms were just as odd.  There was no
  standardization of parts in the probe.  Two widgets intended to do
  almost the same job could be subtly different or wildly different.
  Braces and <<page break>> mountings seemed had carved.  The probe was
  as much a sculpture as a machine.
  ...
  Every nut and bold in that probe was designed separately.
  ...
  "...The Motie engineers made two widgets do one job, all right, but the
  second widget does two other jobs, and some of the supports are
  also bimetallic thermostats and thermoelectic generators all in one.
  Rod, I barely understand the words.  Modules: human engineers work in
  modules, don't they?"
    "For a complicated job, of course they do."
    "The Moties don't.  It's all one piece, everything working on
  everything else."

'Course, they ain't got nothing on Pak Protectors, who could single-
handedly build a fusion powered interstellar ship if given enough yams
to live on.

IMO, neither species would use Python.

                    Andrew
                    dalke at dalkescientific.com