On Feb 17, 2014, at 9:39 PM, Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote: > On 2/17/14 10:39 AM, Parks, Raymond wrote: >> What I think I'm hearing from Glen is that while it's nice to use >> power-planers and router tables to shape wood, one should know how to use >> the right type of hand-plane, chisels, and scrapers in case you lose >> electric power. >> >> In terms closer to most on the list - programming in the scripting language >> du jour is fine for productivity, but just in case it falls out of fashion >> and loses support, you should be able to fall back on a HLL, and, just in >> case, assembly. >> >> In both of my examples, learning the more primitive methods means that one >> learns the foundational knowledge that makes using the modern methods easier >> and higher in quality. > My mystical version of this is that while it *is* "Turtles all the way Down", > it is worth knowing the names of the Turtles. I don't honestly expect people > to do their development using "rod logic" but it might behoove any > self-respecting hacker to actually understand how such a thing *might* be > done... just as Assembly/Machine language is a useful lower-level abstraction > for understanding the basis for early HLL's like Fortran IV and ultimately > Block Structured (F77 and C?) and then OO (C++/ObjC/Java/etc.)? One > *needn't* be proficient in these lower levels of abstraction, just > *appreciative?* of how to get from one to another? > > I'm just sayin’
I’m in violent agreement. While someone can drive a car without being an auto mechanic, I can’t really understand why anyone who drives a car wouldn’t want to at least understand the basics of internal combustion engines, automatic/manual transmissions, hybrid powertrains, and so on. Same with microprocessors, compilers, assembly language, high level languages, lambda calculus. I think that being a hacker is a state of mind that naturally wants to tear things apart to see how they work, and (hopefully) put them back together again. Maybe even put something new together just for the heck of it. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
