At 03:23 PM 5/7/99 -0400, Matt Blaze wrote:
>But in the case of source code, there is no difference between a
>"photograph" of source code and the actual code itself.
But, what if one created a machine that could render an exact duplicate pot (or one
that at least *looks like* an exact duplicate) given a picture or pictures of the
original? That's how computers and software are related. A computer can't execute an,
e.g., "C" program listing. But, one can feed that listing into a compiler and the
result of that process is what executes.
>Source code is simply the only effective way to express some programming ideas,
>and you cannot separate out its function from its expression, as you might be
>able to do with pottery.
I wouldn't say software is the only way; perhaps the simplest way. Hideous or not, I
assert that any programming idea can be expressed as, e.g., flow-charts.
Karl
