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----- Original Message -----
From: "Uche Ogbuji" <uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com>
To: "Paul T" <pault12@pacbell.net>
Cc: "Uche Ogbuji" <uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com>; "Bullard, Claude L (Len)"
<clbullar@ingr.com>; "'Sean McGrath'" <sean.mcgrath@propylon.com>; "Mike
Champion" <mc@xegesis.org>; <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2002 10:23 PM
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Re: XML and Complex Systems (was Re: [xml-dev] Re: An
Architecture for Limericks)
> > Agree. Pipe-based approach is 'good'. However, somehow,
> > most of computer users ( including developers ) have serious
> > problems, writing UNIX pipes. I'd say that the majority
> > of computer users prefers GUI / OO / event-driven world
> > to pipes-based world.
>
> I think we'd all be better off if there were far fewer and far better
programmers. Call me a snot, but IMHO A programmer who cannot understand the
basic divide-and-conquer algorithmic imperatives that are the foundation of
computer science, and that are properly enforced by functional programming,
should be quarantined from *any* computer language.
>
In an ideal world all programmers would be diligent, intelligent individuals
who had a firm grasp of computer science principles that would help them solve
all their mundane programming tasks in as O(log n) time whilst spending their
free time discussing the merits of functional programming languages and why
Emacs is the greatest text editor to have ever been invented.
Unfortunately we don't live in that world. XML is a web technology that is
managed by the World Wide Web Consortium, it is unlikely that any other field
in Information Technology is as much a haven for non-Computer Scientists as
web programming which is evidenced[0] by the amount of people whose sum total
knowledge of CS seems to have come from the programming efficiently section of
"Programming Perl"
Thus I think it is unreasonable to expect the users of XML or its associated
technologies to be terribly familiar with computer science concepts to be able
to perform their tasks (I can't believe I just wrote that).
Anyway, I've digressed from the main point of the thread which was that XSLT
has limitations that make certain tasks that may become more widespread than
we expect difficult to do. So what are the alternatives?
>
> Yeah. And they also decided that the good old process, which God intended
as the fundamental unit of CPU scheduling, be primped up with the addition of
"lightweight" processes (AKA threads).
>
Threads are a nice idea, I haven't heard many coherent arguments against them
besides "they are hard to program" which given the previous statements you
made I doubt are your reasons for disliking them..
[0] I use the word liberally here. :)
--
THINGS TO DO IF I BECOME AN EVIL OVERLORD #123
If I decide to hold a contest of skill open to the general public,
contestants will be required to remove their hooded cloaks and
shave their beards before entering.
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