Re: Functional Paradigm popularity and Maths (Was: XML as a transition to s-expr)

[address@hidden]

Guy Steele - Sun Microsystems Labs <gls@labean.East.Sun.COM> writes:

>    > So why should I "always" need to hire a person with a "solid/formal"
>    > foundation in computer science for working on a given software
>    > problem.
>    
>    Because you would not hire a nurse whose only experience with medicine
>    is anecdotal.  Because you would not hire a cook that did not
>    understand that incorrectly prepared food can be fatal.
> 
> Thanks for an excellent parable.  Let's explore it further.
> 
> Rather than hiring an expert chef who has been trained and
> certified in the art of removing the poisonous parts from
> a blowfish (fugu), leaving only enough toxin in the flesh
> that I (probably) won't die from it, I think I'd rather hire
> the guy who's just a basic short-order cook who doesn't try
> to get fancy.
> 
> If I *had* to eat fugu for some exotic reason, I'd want the expert.
> But for everyday breakfasts, I'm willing to settle for an omelet,
> hash browns, and OJ.  Getting the eggs to be fully cooked isn't
> that hard, and (more to the point) I can easily tell when it hasn't
> been done right.

Ok, I guess the question comes down to whether `understanding lists
and recursion' is more along the lines of removing poison from fugu or
making hash and eggs over easy.  Perhaps I'm a computer snob, but I
put sausage links and linked lists in the same category.

I don't expect a new hire to understand lattices and retracts, but he
better understand a linked list.