[antlr-interest] ITLS (was: Translators Should Use Tree Grammars)

[John D. Mitchell]

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>>>>> "Anthony" == Anthony Youngman <Anthony.Youngman at ECA-International.com> writes:
[...]

> And to add my tuppence-worth, speaking as an *engineer* (actually,
> scientist by training), the computer mathematicians are making exactly
> the same mistake as the hardware people, namely a belief in abstraction
> ...

Indeed.  What I was describing is a dichotomy.  Neither side is, a priori,
correct/right/true.


> Okay, I'm more into database theory, but you're talking about logic,
> symbolism and abstraction - all branches of PURE mathematics. Where is
> the *scientific* evidence that all this maths is *relevant* to problem in
> hand (stuff like experiment, statistics, etc etc).

IMHO, both sides are better looked at as being tools in our kit to solving
the problem at hand.

[...]

> Sorry if I'm drifting way off topic, but I really get wound up when
> people seek to justify their world view through mathematics. There's a
> very big gulf between *correct* maths and *relevant* maths, and too many
> people seem to think that just because it's the former, it has to be the
> latter too. (Look at modern physics - we have many "correct" theories,
> we're just trying to work out which ones are "relevant".)

Indeed, that tiny issue of dealing with reality is something that the
software world has spent way too much time in denial about.

Thanks,
	John


 
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