Python's Lisp heritage

[Carl Banks]

John Roth wrote:
> 
> "Carl Banks" <imbosol at vt.edu> wrote in message
> news:tnos9a.de.ln at 127.0.0.1...
>>
>> Computer programming is not science.
>>
>> The study of algorithms, their properties, etc., is science.
>> Implementing a quicksort algorithm is not science, but studying its
>> properties is.
> 
> I would dispute that. The study of algorithms may very well
> be a branch of mathematics, but mathematics is not science.

Algorithms is unquestionably a branch of mathematics.  It has the same
formalism, same proofs and theorems, etc.  I imagine it's even
possible to define things like topologies of algorithms.


> Science is, among other parts, the study of the natural universe
> and things in it. The study of algorithms is a study of things
> that have been created by the human mind.

Sorry, but I don't agree that algorithms, or any mathematical concept,
is an invention of the human mind.  The algorithms have existed since
the beginning of time.  The quicksort had the property of requiring ~
n^2 comparisons in the worst case before it had ever been used or
applied.  We merely discovered this algorithm; we didn't create it.

So I say mathematics, including the study of algorithms, is a natural
science.  And, for now, that's all I have to say about it.


-- 
CARL BANKS                                http://www.aerojockey.com
"Nullum mihi placet tamquam provocatio magna.  Hoc ex eis non est."