Every programming languages are just sequence, selection, iteration | Hacker News Reader

Every programming languages are just sequence, selection, iteration

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15 pointsmaheshs16 comments

The presentation is dynamic and flamboyant, but the content is unoriginal and uninspired.

Summary: Hardware's progressed O(10^25); software, no where near as much. Software's just been sequence, selection, and iteration in various guises. Moore's law is ending; clock-speeds, slowing; multi-core, coming. Functional programming will help.

Check it out if you're interested in a fun talk about programming and history of languages. The intended audience, despite being at a Rails Conference, seemed to be programmers who've not ventured far from the popular languages of the day. Anyone else will likely be disappointed, waiting for a new message that's never delivered.

O(10^25) = O(1)

Substituting that in...

Summary: Hardware's progressed linearly; software, no where near as much.

If you consider speed and storage as orthogonal dimensions it would be quadratic.

Well, I just rewrote what grandparent said, subbing in that O(10^25) is linear.

hehe, a lesson for the kids, all constants scale the same.

Sure. Trivially true. I meant to overloaded O() to mean "order of magnitude" when used for a constant factor, but you're right that in computational complexity's big O notation, O(k) = O(1) for all constants k.

Could you please take the time to go over your title before you post, or read it after you posted it, and make sure it's grammatically correct?

Thanks.

With a little homework you could have easily figured out the poster is not a native English speaker and thus spared making yourself look like a bit of an ass.

Isn't that even more reason to check it for correctness? I know when I write in German I do at least two proof readings before I send it out into the wild, preferably after checking with a native speaker.

Checking with a native speaker is not something everyone has access to on an every-moment basis. Without that, if you're a non-native speaker, how can you tell that something you don't know is incorrect is incorrect?

It's just a link title with an extra s and 'are' instead of 'is'. Not a big f'ing deal.

Interesting to see the see-saw of downvotes from people who agreed with me, to people who apparently agree more with you though.

I have a hard time watching his talks. Too much fluff around the substance.

I'd never heard Martin talk.

Honestly, I found him to be an amazing speaker.

I did not find any "fluff", just a wide viewpoint.

yeah, a lot of people like his talks. Something about his style is abrasive to me.

I really liked him on the stack overflow podcast though.

He seems just a little too full of himself. One of those people who gets too much pleasure from hearing words come out of his own mouth.

I happily accept the mad flourishes of Robert Martin. They fortify his arguments and help engage the audience. Good education has an element of entertainment and emotion. It's a part of how we learn, or at least, how we learn best.

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