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From: esj@harvee.UUCP (Eric S Johansson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: General Purpose Forth
Message-ID: <7331871@harvee.UUCP>
Date: 17 Mar 91 19:09:06 GMT
References: <3729.27db5037@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <13837@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <5931@awdprime.UUCP>
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In article <5931@awdprime.UUCP> sanders@peyote.cactus.org
(Tony Sanders) writes:
> 
> IMHO,
>   The "latest innovations" are next to worthless.  This is why people
>   still program in asm, basic, cobol and fortran.  The "lastest innovations"
>   just aren't that much better.  There ain't no great salvation waiting
>   to be discovered just over the next hill.  There are small advances and
>   good ideas that have a lifetime and then they will be replaced with
>   something a little better.  Which isn't to say that we havn't come
>   a long way already, just that there is still a long way to go.

People code in XYZ lang for many reasons beyond their control.  I code in
C because I have to.  Other people stay with a language because they
are afraid to learn anything new.  This does not mean that the
latest innovations are worthless.  it just means their full impact is
not felt immediately.  

You are quite right that "There ain't no great salvation waiting to be 
discovered just over the next hill."  Fred Brooks said as much in his
IEEE Software article "No Silver Bullets".  

I believe that inovations work by reducing the complexity of
solving problems in a specific problem domain.  How much the complexity
is  reduced and the visibility of the reduction affects the value of
the innovation. 

From my perspective, solving a problem is not unlike sitting at the 
bottom of a bowl and trying to get out.  In its initial state all 
directions are equally difficult or complex (i.e. the depth of the 
bowl is equal in all directions).  Finding a solution means you have 
reached the rim of the bowl.  Tools are a means of deforming the bowl.  
Using a tool the right way means it is easier to solve the problem 
(reach the rim) with the tool than without it.  

The more a tool shows the direction of the deformations (solutions)
the more useful the tool.  This line of thinking leads me to believe
that the next major innovation will be somewhere in the area of
the mathamatics of programming.  From what I can tell the techniques are
incredibly sensitive to solving a problem the "wrong" way and give
very strong indicators to where solutions lie.  Better start studying
your discreet math folks!

--
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