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From: Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com>
To: Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support>
Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Quote by Knuth
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2021 23:34:03 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <trinity-9b942d3b-e94f-4094-8cb6-199db8d3eadf-1625607243471@3c-app-mailcom-bs12> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <YOS0RTZZgCfr7+Yv@protected.localdomain>

> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2021 at 7:51 AM
> From: "Jean Louis" <bugs@gnu.support>
> To: tomas@tuxteam.de
> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Quote by Knuth
>
> * tomas@tuxteam.de <tomas@tuxteam.de> [2021-07-05 18:42]:
> > There's at least one wise person who put that exactly the other
> > way around:
> >
> >   "Programming is the art of telling another human being
> >    what one wants the computer to do"
> >
> >    -- D.E.Knuth [1]
>
> Maybe Knuth's quote is related to literate programming. Maybe it is
> related to the resulting program and user's view of it.
>
> It mentions "another human being" and not "another programmer"
> specifically.
>
> It is nice to have quotes.
>
> It is nice to remember that quotes apply only within specific
> contexts and that there is no absoluta.

Knuth was wrong on so many things.  I understand what he means, but
literate programming is not the way.  Have got Joris van der Hoeven -
author of texmacs - fuming when I criticised him, because I did not
do the same with  Donald.  I'm doing it now.

Still, Knuth did a much better job making tex, than Hoeven doing texmacs.
In this regard, texmacs is a very disappointing implementation with a
syntax that no human being will find useful at all.

At the beginning of the computer age (1970) when the long-known algorithms
were first put on computers, they turned out to be highly inefficient.

Therefore, a large part of the work consisted in revisiting classical mathematics
to make it effective and to discover efficient algorithms to implement.

> Programs are made for people, users could not care less how is program
> really written. They need not know it.
>
> Theoreticall background may be so much distinct from practical
> application.
>
> Majority of applications today are for users and their life, business
> or entertainment. They care less of what we theoretically speak
> about the underlying program. What they want is functional software,
> and users often don't even know they are running "software", as terms
> changed so much. They may call it by name, like "Open Google" when
> they open any kind of browser, they may not know what "browser" ist,
> etc.
>
> --
> Jean
>
> Take action in Free Software Foundation campaigns:
> https://www.fsf.org/campaigns
>
> In support of Richard M. Stallman
> https://stallmansupport.org/
>
>



  parent reply	other threads:[~2021-07-06 21:34 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 87+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-07-05 14:37 append, push, and add-to-list Drew Adams
2021-07-05 14:53 ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-05 15:19   ` Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-05 16:18     ` [External] : " Drew Adams
2021-07-05 16:46     ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-06 19:54       ` Jean Louis
2021-07-06 20:08         ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-05 15:41   ` tomas
2021-07-05 16:58     ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-05 17:21       ` tomas
2021-07-06  1:17         ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-05 18:10       ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-05 18:18         ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-05 18:11       ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-05 18:39         ` Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-05 20:35           ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-06 19:57         ` Jean Louis
2021-07-06 20:16           ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-06 19:56       ` Jean Louis
2021-07-06 20:15         ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-06 19:51     ` Quote by Knuth Jean Louis
2021-07-06 20:06       ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-06 21:57         ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-06 22:16           ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-06 22:26             ` Alexandre Garreau
2021-07-06 23:21               ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-14 16:09                 ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-14 17:37                   ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-14 17:41                     ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-15  3:08                       ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-18 22:25                         ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-20 17:18                           ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-14 16:02               ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-14 16:20                 ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-14 17:41                 ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-14 17:43             ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-14 17:49               ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-15  3:05                 ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-15  6:50                   ` tomas
2021-07-15  6:55                     ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-15  7:11                       ` tomas
2021-07-15 10:55                         ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-18 22:23                       ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-20 17:22                         ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-18 22:20                   ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-20 17:27                     ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-14 19:24               ` Jean Louis
2021-07-14 20:15                 ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-14 20:30                   ` Marcin Borkowski
2021-07-14 20:58                     ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-14 22:54                       ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-14 21:04                     ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-14 23:05                       ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-14 22:53                     ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-15  6:06                       ` Marcin Borkowski
2021-07-15  6:21                         ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-17 18:43                           ` Marcin Borkowski
2021-07-18  7:41                             ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-18 11:50                               ` Jean Louis
2021-07-18 13:17                                 ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-18 13:41                                   ` Jean Louis
2021-07-18 17:57                                     ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-18 23:25                                   ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-20 16:27                                     ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-20 16:39                                     ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-18 22:58                                 ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-20 16:41                                   ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-18 22:54                               ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-20 17:10                                 ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-18 13:54                             ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-18 22:37                             ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-18 22:34                         ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-14 22:43                   ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-14 22:31                 ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-15  2:58                   ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-15  6:43                     ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-07-18 22:14                     ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-19  7:07                       ` tomas
2021-07-19  8:05                         ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-21  4:52                           ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-21  8:55                             ` Christopher Dimech
2021-07-21  4:28                         ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
2021-07-21  8:42                           ` Gregory Heytings
2021-07-19  8:44                       ` lisa-asket
2021-07-06 21:34       ` Christopher Dimech [this message]
2021-07-05 16:19   ` [External] : Re: append, push, and add-to-list Drew Adams
2021-07-05 16:41     ` Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor

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