OT: Re: Shit - it's all true
OT: Re: Shit - it's all true
- Subject: OT: Re: Shit - it's all true
- From: Courtney Schwartz <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 12:03:27 -0400
This discussion doesn't properly belong on this list. Could you at
least mark it with 'OT' if you don't wish to discuss it privately?
That aside, blanket statements like "RISC is faster than CISC" and
similar remarks don't lend anything to the discussion. The ad hominem
"this chip is better, my computer is better than yours" argument is
oversimplified at best... but generally a waste of everyone's time.
Furthermore, this RISC vs. CISC thing has been discussed to death for
years, far before this current thread. Let's all move on.
Now... does anyone have any remarks about how this will affect the
future of AppleScript? Any speculation on how maintainable AppleScript
support will be over the architecture change? Perhaps, having done this
shift before, Apple has this solved...
Does the architecture shift perhaps support Apple's position to
leverage the popular power of familiarity and de facto standardization
in its marketing efforts, as it did with SMB and Unix compatibility?
Would such a standards-minded approach eventually lead to the redesign
of AppleScript?
Long-winded disgruntlement follows. :)
You can read any number of such "this tech is better" statements on pop
science no-content web sites. But then, it's generally simpler to
produce opinions than hard facts. Opinions are not accountable for
accuracy. Such writing is emotionally "pungent", but rhetorically weak.
Opinion has its place; don't misunderstand me. But it's more difficult
to make a Joe-Schmoe-accessible article about different chip design
purposes, because you have to assume expertise in design; it's harder
to make an emotional read on how these design differences create the
dazzling array of benchmarks, biased towards those different
purposes... and thus why the numbers do little to describe the chip,
and more to describe the tests themselves.
Real engineering discussions have more subtle arguments; they pay due
respect to the complexity of the problem. They don't have a simple, pat
"this is better, that is bad" slogan that people can take and run with,
deceiving readers with the feeling that they somehow know more than
before. An article/discussion with a strong opinion doesn't mean it has
strong content. In fact, it's usually the opposite, because it uses
emotional response to psychologically override rational response to the
subtleties that develop mature arguments.
Dogma is this opinion-reliant rhetoric carried to its illogical
extreme... It's inferior reasoning, and not befitting the technology
community. It degrades the quality of this mailing list.
(And of course such empty discussions do not even begin to address
discrepancies that occur when developers, algorithms and compilers
optimize more for one design than another... the *technical* decisions
that face this *technical* list.)
And honestly, I feel that a public mailing list of any sort isn't even
the proper forum for this type discussion. It's not functionally
suited. If we all really want to know the differences between designs,
we would be reading well-solidified and reviewed computer engineering
texts on the topic, and not this mailing list... because that's the
proper place for such well-established information, IMHO.
Mailing lists gather a wide array of people, and as such, are best
suited for solving problems at hand, but not for finding authoritative
answers. Insert the usual caution about arguments on the Internet...
and why employers usually hire for university degrees and professional
accomplishment, and not mailing list membership. It's a difference of
purpose. Also, the summary of stats on registers, instruction sets,
power consumption and heat dissipation is interesting, but not
appropriate for this AppleScript mailing list, or even the mailing list
medium in general, don't you think?
Courtney Schwartz
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