dsimcha wrote:
Basically, my take as a practical programmer rather than a theoretical comp-sci researcher is "Who cares if it's been done before if it's not implemented in any practical language?".
There's rarely anything truly new in programming. I agree with you that turning an idea into something useful is where it's at, and how it's done. For example, there's the idea of putting windows in a house, and then there's the design, size, and placement of those windows that make it matter.
This is hardly unique to programming. For example, the Vikings 'discovered' America centuries before Columbus. But they did no followup, forgot about it, and it had no lasting impact.
Many argue that others invented the airplane before the Wright brothers. But none of those claims can be properly documented, none of them did any followup, and none of them had any impact on the evolution of airplane design.
Led Zeppelin based several of its major hits on obscure blues songs. Zep should have given credit at the time, but also, if Zep hadn't reworked those songs into hits, those songs would be quite forgotten.
