Python was designed (was Re: Multi-threading in Python vs Java)

[Rhodri James]

On Tue, 15 Oct 2013 21:26:27 +0100, Mark Janssen  
<dreamingforward at gmail.com> wrote:

>> = Rusi, attribution missing from original.

>> Objects in programming languages (or 'values' if one is more functional  
>> programming oriented) correspond to things in the world.
>
> One of the things you're saying there is that "values correspond to
> things in the world".  But you will not get agreement in computer
> science on that anymore than saying "numbers correspond to things in
> the world" -- they are abstractions that are not supposed to
> correspond to things.  (Objects, OTOH, were intended to, so your
> statement has mixed truthiness.)
>
>> Types on the other hand correspond to our classifications and so are  
>> things in our minds.
>
> That is not how a C programmer views it.  They have explicit
> "typedef"s that make it a thing for the computer.

Speaking as a C programmer, no.  We have explicit typedefs to create new  
labels for existing types, to make the type-abstraction easier to relate  
to the object-abstraction.  Not that I personally think of C objects as  
abstractions, I'm rather with Rusi on that, but if you do then the object  
type must be an abstracted abstraction.  At which point my head starts to  
hurt and I'll get back to some engineering if you don't mind.

>> The same in the world of programming languages:
>
> No.  There is one world in which the computer is well-defined.  All
> others are suspect.

Perhaps, though I'm personally rather dubious of that claim.  Proving  
well-definedness may be rather interesting.

> Yeah, well 40 years ago they didn't have parsers.   The purpose of
> having a field of computer science worthy of the name, is to advance
> the science not let this riff-raff dominate the practice.

That is an utterly ludicrous statement (and grammatically suspect to boot)  
that does nothing to bolster my confidence in your philosophising.

-- 
Rhodri James *-* Wildebeest Herder to the Masses