[Edu-sig] Programming for the fun of it

[Dennis E. Hamilton]

I was in a conversation a while back where it was pointed out that the
pursuit of science, generally, is one of beauty, and that it is primarily
religion which pursues truth.

That was very interesting for me.  It gave me a new perspective on a famous
quote from Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield (The Evolution of Physics,
1938): "Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not,
however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world." (p.31).

It also clarified for me how often techies like myself lapse into religious
debates, the tip-off being claims about the "best" programming language,
development methodology, or operating-system model without any grounding in
empirically confirmable values.  It is useful to remind myself that it is
all made up and some of it can be beautiful in its conceptual harmony and
the utility that becomes available.  It's just not the truth.

-- Dennis

AIIM DMware Technical Coordinator
AIIM DMware http://www.infonuovo.com/dmware
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------------------
Dennis E. Hamilton            tel. +1-425-793-0283
mailto:orcmid@email.com       fax. +1-425-430-8189

-----Original Message-----
From: edu-sig-admin@python.org [mailto:edu-sig-admin@python.org]On
Behalf Of Dethe Elza
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2000 16:09
To: edu-sig
Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] Programming for the fun of it


I like this.  David Gelertner writes about advances in computer science
happening as a pursuit of beauty, and the whole pattern movement came
about from a theory of architecture which strives for the "Quality
without a Name," i.e., what distinguishes [code|buildings] that are
*alive* from those which are not.

Wonderful!

--Dethe

Daniel Yoo wrote:
<snip />

> G.H. Hardy's book, "A Mathematician's Apology", covers some of the issues
> of teaching abstract concepts.  Why do people do crossword problems?
> Crossword problems surely don't have any direct application, yet people
> derive satisfaction from solving a puzzle.  Hardy says that people do
> mathematics, not because it's practical, but because it's beautiful ---
> that's his primary justification for mathematics.
>
> Likewise, I think people program, not only because it's useful, but
> because it's intellectually stimulating; there's something wonderfully
> _neat_ about seeing these processes run under our fingertips.  All these
> other perks: improving one's employability, gaining problem solving
> skills, are all secondary to the idea that programming is fun.  (At least,
> ideally... *grin*)
>


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