sympy: what's wrong with this picture?

Mensanator mensanator at aol.com
Tue Mar 4 01:12:45 EST 2008


On Mar 3, 11:58 pm, Erik Max Francis <m... at alcyone.com> wrote:
> Mensanator wrote:
> > While we're on the subject of English, the word "worthless"
> > means "has no value". So, a program that doesn't work would
> > generally be "worthless". One that not only doesn't work but
> > creates side effects that cause other programs to not work
> > (which don't have bugs) would be "worse than worthless".
>
> All programs have bugs, which means that in some circumstances, they
> won't work.  

And in such circumstances, would be worthless.

> Therefore, by your reasoning, all programs are worse than
> useless.

That doesn't follow from my reasoning.

Suppose you downloaded a new calculator program that
couldn't add properly. That would be useless to you, right?

But suppose the program contained a virus that erased
your hard drive. That would be "worse than useless", wouldn't it?

>
> > I'm not hard to please at all.
>
> No, of course not, since logically you must think all software is useless.

Somehow, I expected better logic from people who call themselves
programmers.

>
> --
> Erik Max Francis && m... at alcyone.com &&http://www.alcyone.com/max/
>   San Jose, CA, USA && 37 18 N 121 57 W && AIM, Y!M erikmaxfrancis
>    Life is a zoo in a jungle.
>     -- Peter de Vries




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