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Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 04:08:15 +1000
Subject: Re: Fortran
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 3:51 AM, Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> wrote:
> It is fine.  Computers are tools.  The sign of a good tool is that you
> can pick it up and use it without having to read the instruction manual.
> I can jump into pretty much any car, start the engine, and drive it,
> without any learning curve.  There's a lot of complicated organic
> chemistry and thermodynamics going on inside the engine's combustion
> chambers, but I don't need to know any of that to make use of the tool.

Err, I don't know that the analogy is really fair. Either you know how
to drive a car, or you don't; if you do, what you really mean is that
cars are sufficiently standardized that, even though you trained on an
X, you can drive a Y without reading its instruction manual - but if
you don't, then you're basically at the dangerous level of "hey look,
I can type these commands and stuff happens", without knowing the
rather important safety implications of what you're doing. Can you use
a hammer without an instruction manual? Sure! Can you use a circular
saw without reading the instructions? Quite probably, but will you
know how to do it safely?

The organic chemistry and thermodynamics are the car's equivalent of
refcounting and garbage collection. They're absolutely critical if
you're building a car, but in driving one, you almost never need to
care about those details - and it's entirely possible to have a car
that doesn't work the same way (electric, perhaps). I would expect the
instruction manual to be more about things like how to check the oil,
so you don't blow your engine up.

(Caveat: I don't drive, so I might have the details of the analogy
facepalmingly wrong.)

ChrisA