new years resolutions

[Pieter Nagel]

Peter Hansen wrote:

> True.  I'm hoping to help a few people break free of the bonds of their
> experience to date and consider that many different things are actually
> just "programming", and perhaps thereby discover interesting ways to 
> transfer the useful patterns they have learned into new areas.

You are must likely right that people with a Computer Science background 
  tend to insist on limiting the term "programming language" to mean 
Turing Completeness, and only that.

But I don't thing it is due to an "ivory tower" attitude. In science, 
one tends to have rigorous definitions of concepts and try to stick to 
them, so everyone can understand what the are talking about.

For example, maybe there is a "experience broadening" benefit for 
doctors to call "dispensing prescriptions" and "surgery" one and the 
same thing - both involve curing conditions by getting substances 
(chemicals or steel) into the body.

But I doubt you'd get anybody with a medical background to concur. Else, 
you'd end up in the situation of picking a book about "Surgery" off the 
library shelf and not knowing whether it is about diet or cutting people up.

Same with us CompSci types, here.
-- 
      ,_
      /_)              /| /
     /   i e t e r    / |/ a g e l
     http://www.nagel.co.za