[plt-scheme] Computers considered harmful

hi 
this was neglectable part of my post :))) 
the more important part was the rest of my post :))) 


i think the tendency in programming  
is that "to program" would mean 
to explain the problem to the computer in such a way 
that it would be able to solve by it self 
(one of steps in this direction is HtDP i think and all 
ideas of functional and logic programming).

there would be no "debugging"  
only correction of your explanation. 
for this is needed only skills of the mind 
which could be achieved even without computer ... 
although it is better if there is a computer :))) 

how i know the first ever computer program was written 
when the computer was only draft on paper  


best regards 


---------- Original Message -----------
From: hendrik at topoi.pooq.com
To: plt-scheme at list.cs.brown.edu
Sent: Thu, 7 May 2009 06:59:53 -0400
Subject: Re: [plt-scheme] Computers considered harmful

> On Thu, May 07, 2009 at 01:10:10PM +0300, Ivan Altaparmakov wrote:
> > Hi 
> > 
> > When i started to study scheme 
> > it was because i wanted to improve myself 
> > and i studied it entirely without computer.
> > I can say i have improvement in myself because of scheme and HtDP 
> > but i am not sure i become a good programmer ... 
> > So studding without computer is possible it has some advantages, 
> > but is it always practical ? :)
> 
> To learn to program you need two skils:
> 
>   * to break up the problem into pieces the computer can do, and
>   * to debug the collection of pieces you end up with.
> 
> The second is by far the most labour-intensive part of 
> programming, and cannot be learned without a computer.
> 
> The first part can be learned to an extent without a computer, but 
> without a computer you miss a big part of the point -- that some 
> ways of doing it are much better than others, because they reduce the 
> amount of debugging that needs to be done by orders of magnitude.  
> Sometimes they even make it possible to finish debugging.
> 
> -- hendrik
> _________________________________________________
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------- End of Original Message -------