On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 2:31 PM, Andy Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > If I can make a rough analogy, many of our answers have been like different > re-implementations of an algorithm. Like the guy on the guillotine in that > engineer joke, we each think we see what the problem is. And so we "recode" > the algorithm our own way, "run" it -- i.e., post our new, improved > explanation -- and find it still fails. [1]
What this thread has reminded me of is an ongoing conversation I have with a friend of mine, who refuses to countenance the square root of minus one, because he doesn't think it means anything. I explain to him how useful it can be to admit complex numbers for various real-world situations, but because there exists an algorithm to generate mandelbrots which doesn't ever do sqrt(n) for n<0, he thinks this proves that complex numbers are entirely unnecessary and therefore best avoided. It doesn't matter how much you explain that "real" numbers are imaginary too, or that the square root of 4 apples is also meaningless in a physical sense. He has a sort of emotional investment in the uselessness of complex numbers that completely blinkers him. The difference is, I doubt that this particular friend will ever have reason to do anything that will be made easier by using complex numbers, so I don't suppose his opinion will ever change. But I'm hoping that it's just a matter of time for Johnny. (Maybe when he has occasion to create a document-based app it will become clearer? Although bags I not the one to tell him that NSDocumentController is not designed to mediate between his view and his NSDocument ;] ) Hamish _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
