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Subject:RE: 10 Things All Technical Writers Should Do From:"Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Sat, 13 Nov 2004 19:16:29 -0500
> > My point was only that it's much easier to find evidence of
> the origin of "programming" if we go back farther in time than it is
trying to
> > recall the first human industrial machine that used it.
>
> Oh, that's different. Programming, without the software
> angle, must be pretty potent. There was a scene in Contact
> (movie) where Jodie Foster is gazing out on incomprehensible
> universe and it suddently seems very orderly, predictable
> even, but off the scale in human terms. Is that like
> programming in the sense you mean?
>
I mean, roughly:
IF oxygen atom is present
And
IF hydrogen atom + hydrogen atom are present
THEN
Combine to create molecule of water
> > > This interpretation --computing imitates nature-- does have
> > > that telltale ring of a dogma, doesn't it?
> >
> > Dogma?
> >
>
> Like a comforable way of looking at things, but not grounded
> in practical truths. Sort of like the dev team that has
> worked with the software for 18 months, and now dogmatically
> bel;ieves that the user interface is intuitive and a good fit
> for end users.
>
I don't think my suggestion that nature is "programming" is at all dogmatic,
in the extremely pejorative sense you are using the word. It's just common
sense to me, otherwise known as causality.
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