Mercurial > hg > BCS
changeset 50:bb0179426e3f
finale, but middle needs to be filled in
author | Henry Thompson <ht@markup.co.uk> |
---|---|
date | Tue, 19 Nov 2024 20:33:45 +0000 |
parents | 6a9901310a6a |
children | 239100b1ae37 b7c7d05f0ef0 |
files | CR_preface.txt |
diffstat | 1 files changed, 31 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) [+] |
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--- a/CR_preface.txt Tue Nov 19 14:35:15 2024 +0000 +++ b/CR_preface.txt Tue Nov 19 20:33:45 2024 +0000 @@ -355,3 +355,34 @@ much more aware of the ways in which the language was inconsistent and irregular. This initial sketch was the basis for much of the development in KRL-1." + +-------- + +This is not an easy book to read, but it's a very important book, so +it's worth the effort. As Brian himself has said, it's written rather +like a detective story, in which the same underlying set of facts is +explored repeatedly, getting closer each time to a complete and +self-consistent picture. When I first read it, I said to Brian more +than once "But you keeping using [some term], and it's clear you mean +it in some important, technical, sense, but you haven't _defined_ +it". And he said, "be patient". + +If you care about computer science, either as a practioner, or a +theorist, or a concerned citizen, this book matters for you. It's +conclusions matter, even if parts of it are not meant for you. So +even if you find it hard, as a computer programmer, to see why you +should care if the theorists have got it wrong, be patient. If you're +a theorist, and you find Brian's critique at best irrelevant, and at +worst aggresive, obnoxius and founded in misunderstanding, be patient. +If you're a citizen, and the technical details are off-putting, be +patient. + +If you _are_ patient, and stay the course, When you get to the end you +will realise that you actually do understand the terminology now, and +that even though the work that remains is hugely challenging, and +perhaps only imperfectly grasped by Brian himself, much less the rest +of us, getting it done matters for all of us. As practioners and +theorists, we need to ask ourselves what we can do to make Brian's +vision a reality. As citizens, we need to cheer from the sidelines, +and keep asking questions. We owe him that much. +[Haugeland?]