Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!us.feeder.erje.net!news2.arglkargh.de!news.mixmin.net!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Rod Pemberton" Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: The magical number seven Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 01:47:08 -0400 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 34 Message-ID: References: <543bfa10$0$2928$e4fe514c@news2.news.xs4all.nl> <6a35de1e-64e4-426c-b9d9-e3c70ab2eeee@googlegroups.com> <544139de$0$2964$e4fe514c@news2.news.xs4all.nl> <54414f47$0$2922$e4fe514c@news2.news.xs4all.nl> <2014Oct18.174324@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <2014Oct20.111046@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <54452979$0$2923$e4fe514c@news2.news.xs4all.nl> <5K6dnR2vh7THF9jJnZ2dnUU7-RWdnZ2d@supernews.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: CNsg4fVcCsvs3UaOgZtQCw.user.speranza.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Opera Mail/12.16 (Linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.forth:34046 On Mon, 20 Oct 2014 18:19:05 -0400, Elizabeth D. Rather wrote: > On 10/20/14 10:36 AM, Rod Pemberton wrote: >> On Mon, 20 Oct 2014 11:28:00 -0400, Hans Bezemer >> wrote: >>> But my two cents to the discussion, I don't think that ANY programming >>> paradigm is able to enforce "writing good code". >> >> People are able to master the ability to solve complicated math and >> physic problems. Are you saying people are unable to represent the >> solution process for solving such problems as a verifiably correct >> programming paradigm? > > That isn't what he said. Of course people can write good programs. What > he said is that a programming paradigm cannot *force* them to. > People can (and do) write bad programs in any language. > A programming paradigm can force type checking which prevents certain types of bad programming, i.e., you're "forced" to not do that. So, what prevents a paradigm from being implemented which would prohibit all bad implementations? I think the only real issue is that many, many possible combinations of programming elements would need to be tested or proved to ensure that no "bad" programs could result, intentional or otherwise. That may be a daunting task or even not doable with humanity's current intellectual and computational resources. But, if we could reach that point, then we can be reasonably assured that programmers are "forced" to only write good programs. The paradigm simply won't allow for bad ones. Of course, all of this would go against the nature of those who prefer Forth to other languages. Rod Pemberton