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Cuchulainn
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 1st, 2017, 8:45 pm

A Big Ball of Mud is a haphazardly structured, sprawling, sloppy, duct-tape-and-baling-wire, spaghetti-code jungle. These systems show unmistakable signs of unregulated growth, and repeated, expedient repair. Information is shared promiscuously among distant elements of the system, often to the point where nearly all the important information becomes global or duplicated. The overall structure of the system may never have been well defined. If it was, it may have eroded beyond recognition. Programmers with a shred of architectural sensibility shun these quagmires. Only those who are unconcerned about architecture, and, perhaps, are comfortable with the inertia of the day-to-day chore of patching the holes in these failing dikes, are content to work on such systems.
 
 
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 13th, 2017, 10:20 am

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Traden4Alpha
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 13th, 2017, 1:29 pm

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Cuchulainn
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 13th, 2017, 2:30 pm

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Traden4Alpha
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 13th, 2017, 3:03 pm

Lincoln's and Churchills quotes illustrate the core problem for software.

For the most part, axes and trees have very well known and relatively homogeneous properties. Variance of productivity is very low.

But coders, software tools, and software problems have unknown and heterogeneous properties. Variance of productivity is extremely high.

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Cuchulainn
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 13th, 2017, 4:48 pm

Indeed, software is a craft, not science and not (yet) professional engiImageneering.
 
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Traden4Alpha
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 13th, 2017, 5:14 pm

Quite true!

Here's a question: is math a craft or is it like professional engineering? If I give you a new postulate, what is the accuracy of the estimate of the length of the proof and the time required to produce it?
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 13th, 2017, 5:37 pm

Maths is more like Philosophy, pure reasoning and consistency.
 
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Traden4Alpha
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 13th, 2017, 6:00 pm

OK. So is philosophy a craft or is it like professional engineering?

Do philosophers & mathematicians have predictable rates of production?
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 13th, 2017, 6:35 pm

A philosopher, a physicist, a mathematician and a computer scientist were
travelling through Scotland when they saw a black sheep through the
window of the train.

"Aha," says the philosopher, "I see that Scottish sheep are black."

"Hmm," says the physicist, "You mean that some Scottish sheep are
black."

"No," says the mathematician, "All we know is that there is at least
one sheep in Scotland, and that at least one side of that one sheep is
black!"

"Oh, no!" shouts the computer scientist, "A special case!"
 
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Traden4Alpha
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 13th, 2017, 6:43 pm

I see the computer scientist took the longest time to produce an answer! ;)

Still, what's the Venn diagram for disciplines in terms of predictable cost and predictable product quality? Which are craft and which are engineering? Which disciplines are like turning a predictable crank to get a predictable outcome (ax+tree=logs) and which ones involve irreducible complexity or novelty?
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 14th, 2017, 8:17 am

Do philosophers & mathematicians have predictable rates of production?
No.
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 14th, 2017, 8:18 am

I see the computer scientist took the longest time to produce an answer! ;)

Still, what's the Venn diagram for disciplines in terms of predictable cost and predictable product quality?  Which are craft and which are engineering? Which disciplines are like turning a predictable crank to get a predictable outcome (ax+tree=logs) and which ones involve irreducible complexity or novelty?
CS calls it an edge case?

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Traden4Alpha
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Re: Grammar-Pattern Programmers: Is Over-Abstraction Delivering Projects Faster Or Slower?

December 14th, 2017, 12:36 pm

Do philosophers & mathematicians have predictable rates of production?
No.
Perhaps CS is the same and can never have the kinds of reliable production methods found in other types of engineering.