[Edu-sig] RE: [Tutor] Off topic musings

[alan.gauld@freenet.co.uk]

On 20 Aug 01, at 12:24, Bruce Sass wrote:
> > Yes, there are many books and papers on programming correctness but
> > few on the nature of information. 
> 
> I think the Philosophy of Language section in the library would be the
> place to start.  

Now thats an interesting idea. Lateral thinking indeed.
One previous poster suggester I read Godel, Escher, Bach 
which is going in the same direction, but doesn't really quite 
get there either...

> Unless I'm completely misunderstanding you, you are
> interested in how information becomes data, gets manipulated, then
> spit out as information again... 

Maybe. Really I'm just interested in what exactly a theoretical 
basis for software engineering would look like. The papes I was 
reading suggested that we may be reaching the point in CS 
research where we cannot progress further without an underlying 
theoretical base (like electrical theory underpins electronics which 
is in turn underpinned by atomic/molecular/ionic theory).

But what is that theory? For instance we have Shannons stuff on 
the information content of bitstreams, WE have Date/Cobbs work 
on databases, we have Moore and Mealy's work on finite state 
automota and of course Boole's work on logic and binary 
arithmetic but there is little of anything unifying these things.

Finding the unifying thread that ties together the various strands of 
CS in the same way electon theory pulls together everything in 
electronics is the big challenge in advancing CS.

Alan G.