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Date: Tue, 14 May 2013 04:12:53 +1000
Subject: Re: [Off topic] Software epigrams
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 4:02 AM, Skip Montanaro <skip@pobox.com> wrote:
>> 8. A programming language is low level when its programs require
>> attention to the irrelevant.
>>
>> So much a matter of debate. Indentation is irrelevant, why should
>> Python programs pay attention to it? Block delimiters are irrelevant
>> too, the interpreter should be able to figure them out from the code
>> layout. But this one is absolutely right:
>
> I think "irrelevant" in this context means stuff like memory management.

Sure. That one's pretty clear (if you care about memory management,
you want a low level language). But there's still plenty that are less
clear. Though in generalities, I think I agree; paying attention to
minutiae is the consequence of taking a lower-level language. It's
just that the difference between relevant and irrelevant is hard to
define.

ChrisA