tough-to-explain Python

[J. Cliff Dyer]

On Thu, 2009-07-09 at 18:10 +0000, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> If programming is symbol manipulation, then you should remember that
> the 
> user interface is also symbol manipulation, and it is a MUCH harder 
> problem than databases, sorting, searching, and all the other
> problems 
> you learn about in academia. The user interface has to communicate
> over a 
> rich but noisy channel using multiple under-specified protocols to a 
> couple of pounds of meat which processes information using buggy 
> heuristics evolved over millions of years to find the ripe fruit,
> avoid 
> being eaten, and have sex. If you think getting XML was hard, that's 
> *nothing* compared to user interfaces.

+1 QOTW!  QOTM, even!