Mathematica 7 compares to other languages

[George Neuner]

On Mon, 8 Dec 2008 15:14:18 -0800 (PST), Xah Lee <xahlee at gmail.com>
wrote:

>Dear George Neuner,
>
>Xah Lee wrote:
>> >For example,
>> >the level or power of lang can be roughly order as
>> >this:
>>
>> >assembly langs
>> >C, pascal
>> >C++, java, c#
>> >unix shells
>> >perl, python, ruby, php
>> >lisp
>> >Mathematica
>
>George wrote:
>> According to what "power" estimation?  Assembly, C/C++, C#, Pascal,
>> Java, Python, Ruby and Lisp are all Turing Complete.  I don't know
>> offhand whether Mathematica is also TC, but if it is then it is at
>> most equally powerful.
>
>it's amazing that every tech geekers (aka idiots) want to quote
>“Turing Complete” in every chance. Even a simple cellular automata,
>such as Conway's game of life or rule 110, are complete.
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_110
>
>in fact, according to Stephen Wolfram's controversial thesis by the
>name of “Principle of computational equivalence”, every goddamn thing
>in nature is just about turing complete. (just imagine, when you take
>a piss, the stream of yellow fluid is actually doing turning complete
>computations!)

Wolfram's thesis does not make the case that everything is somehow
doing computation.  

>for a change, it'd be far more interesting and effective knowledge
>showoff to cite langs that are not so-called fuck of the turing
>complete.

We geek idiots cite Turing because it is an important measure of a
language.  There are plenty of languages which are not complete.  That
you completely disregard a fundamental truth of computing is
disturbing.

>the rest of you message went on stupidly on the turing complete point
>of view on language's power, mixed with lisp fanaticism, and personal
>gribes about merits and applicability assembly vs higher level langs.

You don't seem to understand the difference between leverage and power
and that disturbs all the geeks here who do.  We worry that newbies
might actually listen to your ridiculous ramblings and be led away
from the truth.

>It's fine to go on with your gribes, but be careful in using me as a
>stepping stone.

Xah, if I wanted to step on you I would do it with combat boots.  You
should be thankful that you live 3000 miles away and I don't care
enough about your petty name calling to come looking for you.  If you
insult people in person like you do on usenet then I'm amazed that
you've lived this long.

George