[Off topic] Software epigrams

[Neil Cerutti]

On 2013-05-13, F?bio Santos <fabiosantosart at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 13 May 2013 19:48, "Neil Cerutti" <neilc at norwich.edu> wrote:
>>
>> On 2013-05-13, Skip Montanaro <skip at pobox.com> wrote:
>> >> 8. A programming language is low level when its programs
>> >> require attention to the irrelevant.
>> >>
>> >> So much a matter of debate. Indentation is irrelevant, why
>> >> should Python programs pay attention to it? Block delimiters
>> >> are irrelevant too, the interpreter should be able to figure
>> >> them out from the code layout. But this one is absolutely
>> >> right:
>> >
>> > I think "irrelevant" in this context means stuff like memory
>> > management.
>>
>> I thought I liked that one at first, but upon reflection it
>> speciously inserts the word "irrelevant" in order to avoid
>> stating a tautology: A programming language is low level when its
>> programs require attention to low level details.
>>
>> --
>> Neil Cerutti
>> --
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>
> It's not a tautology in disguise. Irrelevant != low level. When
> low level details are relevant to the scope of my program, I
> use a low level language.

It is a tautology is disguise. When you use a low level language,
low level details are relevant to the scope of your program.

-- 
Neil Cerutti