On 3/19/07, Charles D Hixson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Yes, "datawise a priority queue is just a set of things with priority numbers attached" and "the alpha-beta algorithm is, well, an algorithm", but neither of those is propositional logic. Yes, you CAN represent them as logic (you can represent anything as logic ... at least once you include some extensions for probabilities, etc.), but that's quite cumbersome.
Mind you, what I have in mind isn't pure propositional logic - like I said, thinking everything can be done by theorem proving is a classic mistake - but blends into functional programming, which often gives very concise and elegant expressions of algorithms. There are reasons why people use programming languages
rather than boolean logic propositions for programming. And there are reasons why there are several DIFFERENT programming languages, even though most of them are Turing complete. The reasons boil down to the match of the language against the problem domain ... otherwise known as efficiency. I consider it quite possible that I have drastically underestimated the number of different data formats necessary (Yes, Alpha-Beta is an algorithm, but efficient implementation of it implies a particular subset of data structures), I don't think I have overestimated them.
*nods* I think concern for machine efficiency is the most lethal handicap of all; it's a mindset of which one has to deliberately break oneself, by taking the attitude that no solution can be any good if it _isn't_ profligate with machine resources. I think that's the only way to boost productivity to the point where one no longer has to resign oneself to spending one's entire life on a single narrow problem. Or if one is going to have such concern, it should manifest only _after_ one is at the point of being able to say "this program does very cool things, but too slowly; shortage of computing power is now the only thing stopping us from shipping; let's optimize". These are just my opinions. I wouldn't even try to prove them.
Mine too; the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=303
