[REBOL] Re: On mutability and sameness
From: jeff:rebol at: 19-Jun-2001 7:45
[Robbo1Mark--aol--com]:
>> .... Having followed this thread with interest, I believe,
barring the disclaimer above, that both Joel & Ladislav are
WRONG in the sense that some REBOL behaviour can only be
explained and understood fully in terms of the way it has
been implemented.<<
That's a very bottom up way to think of things. When we
implement parts of REBOL we first sit down and say "how is
this supposed to work-- what are the rules it obeys." Once we
understand what something is supposed to do, then we write the
lower level code that does that thing we've figured out. It's
a process of describing in a low level, something you
understand at a high level. You're claiming to want to
understand something at a high level by considering how it is
expressed at a low level. That's like trying to understand
what an Elephant IS by looking at one of its cells under a
microscope. How do you even know what you're looking at is an
Elephant?
The way functionality is implemented is arbitrary as long as
it is reasonably space and cpu efficient and the
implementation behaves according to the high level
functionality that's desired. Joel's got this one on the head.
You gain little understanding of something like series by
trying to build series in C. You'll miss the forest for the
trees, so to speak.
Robbo:
>>To fully understand the behviour of any-block! or
any-string! series! values you have to have a model of how
series! values are implemented at the C code level from
which REBOL is built. ... Whilst any C code model we might
build for REBOL values... will most probably NOT exactly
match the RT official implementation, I think it is important
conceptually that we do TRY to conceptually build an
implementation model.<<
Joel:
>> C may be OK for giving examples, but it is certainly not
the only way to think about computing, IMHO.<<
Yes, but I think Mark's interest in having things
"explained" in terms of C code has less to do with
"understanding REBOL" at a high level, and more to do with
having people help "paint his fence", if you've ever read
Tom Sawyer. ;-)
-jeff
