::scr Re: Cognitive Friction

[Piers Cawley]

jo walsh <jo@abduction.org> writes:
>> I've certainly seen and heard people who couldn't sing intuitively.
>> Didn't stop the buggers trying mind. I've also heard (and sung)
>> intuitive harmonies for songs that were entirely new to the people
>> singing... 
>
> i suppose i meant the humming, purring, pre-linguistic singing instinct -
> a tangled thread perhaps we dont want to start here - not necessarily
> aligned with formal or informal tunefulness :) 

Ah... gotcha.

>
>> Why do I find myself thinking of Christopher Alexander, _A Pattern
>> Language_ and a _The Timeless Way of Building_?
>
> yes! in the idea that functions and aesthetics are inseparable, are
> actually not real and separate ideas - maybe that's too extreme. though
> the followers of the "Design Patterns" people have misused his gist much
> worse than i hope i ever could. 

I'm not entirely sure that misused is the right word. However, as RP
Gabriel points out in _Patterns of Software_ (a fine book which I
recommend highly), when Alexander tried to apply his Pattern Language
in real life, it failed. It didn't fail badly, but the buildings that
resulted did not have The Quality Without a Name, so it shouldn't be
all that surprising if a system of building programs based on those
ideas should fail too. Alexander contributes a foreward to Gabriel's
book in which he questions the validity of drawing parallels between
buildings and programs in the first place. Definitely a fascinating
book.

I note that Alexander's 'The Nature of Order' is due out in February
this year. Hmmm... time to preorder at amazon methinks.

>>    "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a language in
>>     possession of a rich syntax must be in need of a rewrite."
>
> you planning to throw one away? :)

Umm... it was just a comment on the Perl 6 process.

-- 
Piers

   "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a language in
    possession of a rich syntax must be in need of a rewrite."
         -- Jane Austen?