Unfortunately, the article didn't really reveal any details. There may be connections between Natural Programming and Natural Language Processing. I need to try the Alice thing to see what it's like.
If there is a general transition from third to fourth generation languages, it will certainly take longer than from second to third. However, there is always evolution taking place, though it's often slow.
I'm always disappointed when I notice how long it has taken for high level programming concepts to move from pioneer languages like Lisp to general use. Consider how long it took before people were commonly using automatic memory management, dynamic typing, and functions as objects. In fact, the most commonly used languages today don't even allow complete freedom using functions as objects or higher-order functions.
I'm confident that there will be programming languages that better match how people think. However, they may not look anything like current fourth-generation languages. There is huge potential for research and invention in programming language design.
Just because more advanced styles of programming haven't worked out well in general yet doesn't mean they never will. What if people had thought taken that approach when assemblers were the status quo?
If no one had tried to increase the level of programming, we wouldn't even have C or Java. Remember that the switch to third generation didn't happen overnight. Work on Fortran and Lisp started back in the fifties.
This article isn't talking about NLP, it's talking about Natural Programming, which sounds like an entirely different beast. I was fooled at first too.
You're absolutely right. Slum-dwellers don't need to buy groceries anyway. They probably die at a great enough rate that there are fresh corpses lying around all the time if anyone feels peckish.
I'm sure George is a good businessman. However, he also used to be able to make good movies. I don't hate him, but I think it's sad that he seems to have lost the ability to make good use of his vision, especially since he now has so much greater resources than he did twenty years ago.
I agree that much in Star Wars is similar to Dune, but don't look too hard for similarities. The creature in RotJ is only similar to a sandworm in that it is large and has a tentacled mouth; it isn't even motile.
Also, how is Tatooine similar to Arrakis, except that it is a desert planet? Is Arizona a clone of Egypt just because they both contain desert regions? Arrakis has the spice, but Tatooine is entirely worthless.
Light sabers are entirely technological and have nothing to do with any animal. A saber is a sword, not a tooth.
It would be a waste of bandwidth. I saw "Twisted" a few months ago in the dollar theater. I remember absolutely nothing about the movie except that it was a cop drama with Ashley Judd. I usually remember a few details of even bad movies, but this one was completely forgettable.
What I've read and heard about the typical low carb diets is that they allow people to lose weight without restricting total calories. That's why they're so popular, because people don't have to limit how much they eat as much as on a low-calorie diet.
Of course carbohydrates aren't harmful. They're no more harmful than fat, protein, salt, or any other essential nutrients. Any of those can be harmful in excess.
I didn't mean to imply anything about Java or a particular implementation, but only to provide a data point. I won't challenge any of your points, though it might not make much sense to compare a PowerPC's clock rate to a Duron's. I've also been disappointed with my machine's inability to play some sample Theora movies using the reference implementation.
I'm sure vim is great for those who are used to it, but where is the mode (or plugin or script or whatever it's called) that parses and validates the document in real time as you type? The closest I could find with a quick (admittedly inexhaustive) search was onsgmls.vim. However, onsgmls.vim runs an external validator on the document and returns a list of errors, rather than updating the display in real time.
LyX is a move in the right direction. It may not be quite abusive enough, but at least it doesn't allow a user to format using spaces and tabs and discourages direct font choosing.
According to a documentary on PBS, the modern Olympics are closer to the original now than they were one hundred years ago. Both now and in ancient times, the very best athletes can compete (rather than just amateurs) and winners are rewarded with lucrative commercial incentives. Of course, there probably wasn't an equivalent of the IOC in ancient times and advertising hadn't been built into such an industry as it is today.
How about the practice of executing any woman who managed to sneak into the Olympics as a spectator? That probably wouldn't go over too well with most people today either.
I didn't say that it is a desirable or just that knowing English gives one an advantage, merely that it is the case. If you dispute that, you are delusional.
I really have no idea what you're getting at. Are you saying that people in the US shouldn't be humble? Are you saying it would be a bad thing for them to know more about the world? Are you saying we should be ashamed that we know an advantageous language? Unless you can look into my heart and know whether I'm humble or not, you can't call me a liar.
I agree that it would be unreasonable to expect the average person in the US to know the location of the three guyanas (Suriname was also called Dutch Guyana when it was a colony). Just today, I was talking to a guy who did know where Guyana is and I was impressed.
Suriname does have an interesting history. At one time, Manhattan was a Dutch colony and was called Nieuw Amsterdam. As the result of a treaty, they traded it for Suriname, which had been a British colony. Now, Nieuw Amsterdam is a small town in Suriname. Surinamers still drive on the left side of the road as an artifact of being a British colony.
I do expect people to know roughly where Brazil is. It certainly is sad that people in the US don't know the capital of Canada. I would assume that most Canadians know the capital of the US.
I like to take a more balanced view of the situation. Growing up with English as my native language gives me a great advantage, which is a good thing. I think if most US citizens knew more about the world, they'd be more humble and would better appreciate the advantages we have, as well as the advantages of different experiences and ways of thinking.
Having grown up in several countries among an international community, I've always been disgusted with the geographic ignorance of most people in the US. Whenever I tell someone that I grew up in Suriname, I immediately tell them that it's just north of Brazil, between Guyana and French Guyana. Of course, that doesn't always help.
I'm pleasantly surprised if the person has heard of Suriname; in that case it's almost always someone who also grew up outside the US.
The ignorance does go both ways. Sometimes Surinamers would ask my parents if they knew a friend who had moved to the US. It would turn out that the person lived in New York, while my family was from the midwest. Since Suriname is so tiny in area and population, people there often have little concept of how huge the US is.
It seems completely inexcusable to me that people living in the US don't know US geography. I have to admit that I haven't always been sure of exactly where a state borders another, but at least I know the vicinity. I wish I knew African and Asian geography better, but at least I know the part of the world where I've been.
Indeed, it is the norm in most of the world. However, the US has always valued personal freedom and responsibility more than most states. According to the Miranda rights, someone under arrest is not required to say or respond to anything. Does it make sense to arrest someone for not responding to a question when he is no longer required to do so as soon as he is under arrest?
If this man had been arrested for a different crime, like hitting his daughter (which he didn't do anyway), he never would have been legally required to provide identification. It's completely nonsensical.
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Unfortunately, the article didn't really reveal any details. There may be connections between Natural Programming and Natural Language Processing. I need to try the Alice thing to see what it's like.
If there is a general transition from third to fourth generation languages, it will certainly take longer than from second to third. However, there is always evolution taking place, though it's often slow.
I'm always disappointed when I notice how long it has taken for high level programming concepts to move from pioneer languages like Lisp to general use. Consider how long it took before people were commonly using automatic memory management, dynamic typing, and functions as objects. In fact, the most commonly used languages today don't even allow complete freedom using functions as objects or higher-order functions.
I'm confident that there will be programming languages that better match how people think. However, they may not look anything like current fourth-generation languages. There is huge potential for research and invention in programming language design.
Just because more advanced styles of programming haven't worked out well in general yet doesn't mean they never will. What if people had thought taken that approach when assemblers were the status quo?
If no one had tried to increase the level of programming, we wouldn't even have C or Java. Remember that the switch to third generation didn't happen overnight. Work on Fortran and Lisp started back in the fifties.
This article isn't talking about NLP, it's talking about Natural Programming, which sounds like an entirely different beast. I was fooled at first too.
You're absolutely right. Slum-dwellers don't need to buy groceries anyway. They probably die at a great enough rate that there are fresh corpses lying around all the time if anyone feels peckish.
I'm sure George is a good businessman. However, he also used to be able to make good movies. I don't hate him, but I think it's sad that he seems to have lost the ability to make good use of his vision, especially since he now has so much greater resources than he did twenty years ago.
I agree that much in Star Wars is similar to Dune, but don't look too hard for similarities. The creature in RotJ is only similar to a sandworm in that it is large and has a tentacled mouth; it isn't even motile.
Also, how is Tatooine similar to Arrakis, except that it is a desert planet? Is Arizona a clone of Egypt just because they both contain desert regions? Arrakis has the spice, but Tatooine is entirely worthless.
Light sabers are entirely technological and have nothing to do with any animal. A saber is a sword, not a tooth.
Well, actually it's $1.50 most of the time. On Friday and Saturday night, it's $2.00, but on Tuesday, it's $1.00.
I almost never pay for anything but the ticket at a theater. I think they must be losing money on me, which is just the way I like it.
It would be a waste of bandwidth. I saw "Twisted" a few months ago in the dollar theater. I remember absolutely nothing about the movie except that it was a cop drama with Ashley Judd. I usually remember a few details of even bad movies, but this one was completely forgettable.
What I've read and heard about the typical low carb diets is that they allow people to lose weight without restricting total calories. That's why they're so popular, because people don't have to limit how much they eat as much as on a low-calorie diet.
Of course carbohydrates aren't harmful. They're no more harmful than fat, protein, salt, or any other essential nutrients. Any of those can be harmful in excess.
I didn't mean to imply anything about Java or a particular implementation, but only to provide a data point. I won't challenge any of your points, though it might not make much sense to compare a PowerPC's clock rate to a Duron's. I've also been disappointed with my machine's inability to play some sample Theora movies using the reference implementation.
Well, my little Duron 800 can't keep up.
I'm sure vim is great for those who are used to it, but where is the mode (or plugin or script or whatever it's called) that parses and validates the document in real time as you type? The closest I could find with a quick (admittedly inexhaustive) search was onsgmls.vim. However, onsgmls.vim runs an external validator on the document and returns a list of errors, rather than updating the display in real time.
LyX is a move in the right direction. It may not be quite abusive enough, but at least it doesn't allow a user to format using spaces and tabs and discourages direct font choosing.
That's my cue. I use nxml and it works quite nicely, thank you very much. Can your sixth-rate editor validate as you edit and do auto-completion?
According to a documentary on PBS, the modern Olympics are closer to the original now than they were one hundred years ago. Both now and in ancient times, the very best athletes can compete (rather than just amateurs) and winners are rewarded with lucrative commercial incentives. Of course, there probably wasn't an equivalent of the IOC in ancient times and advertising hadn't been built into such an industry as it is today.
How about the practice of executing any woman who managed to sneak into the Olympics as a spectator? That probably wouldn't go over too well with most people today either.
I didn't say that it is a desirable or just that knowing English gives one an advantage, merely that it is the case. If you dispute that, you are delusional.
I really have no idea what you're getting at. Are you saying that people in the US shouldn't be humble? Are you saying it would be a bad thing for them to know more about the world? Are you saying we should be ashamed that we know an advantageous language? Unless you can look into my heart and know whether I'm humble or not, you can't call me a liar.
Of course speaking English is advantageous because it is the language of the USA. That's exactly what I meant, so there's no need for sarcasm.
I agree that it would be unreasonable to expect the average person in the US to know the location of the three guyanas (Suriname was also called Dutch Guyana when it was a colony). Just today, I was talking to a guy who did know where Guyana is and I was impressed.
Suriname does have an interesting history. At one time, Manhattan was a Dutch colony and was called Nieuw Amsterdam. As the result of a treaty, they traded it for Suriname, which had been a British colony. Now, Nieuw Amsterdam is a small town in Suriname. Surinamers still drive on the left side of the road as an artifact of being a British colony.
I do expect people to know roughly where Brazil is. It certainly is sad that people in the US don't know the capital of Canada. I would assume that most Canadians know the capital of the US.
I like to take a more balanced view of the situation. Growing up with English as my native language gives me a great advantage, which is a good thing. I think if most US citizens knew more about the world, they'd be more humble and would better appreciate the advantages we have, as well as the advantages of different experiences and ways of thinking.
I didn't know any of the Swiss cantons, but now I do: http://www.admin.ch/ch/e/schweiz/kantone/index.htm l
Having grown up in several countries among an international community, I've always been disgusted with the geographic ignorance of most people in the US. Whenever I tell someone that I grew up in Suriname, I immediately tell them that it's just north of Brazil, between Guyana and French Guyana. Of course, that doesn't always help.
I'm pleasantly surprised if the person has heard of Suriname; in that case it's almost always someone who also grew up outside the US.
The ignorance does go both ways. Sometimes Surinamers would ask my parents if they knew a friend who had moved to the US. It would turn out that the person lived in New York, while my family was from the midwest. Since Suriname is so tiny in area and population, people there often have little concept of how huge the US is.
It seems completely inexcusable to me that people living in the US don't know US geography. I have to admit that I haven't always been sure of exactly where a state borders another, but at least I know the vicinity. I wish I knew African and Asian geography better, but at least I know the part of the world where I've been.
Indeed, it is the norm in most of the world. However, the US has always valued personal freedom and responsibility more than most states. According to the Miranda rights, someone under arrest is not required to say or respond to anything. Does it make sense to arrest someone for not responding to a question when he is no longer required to do so as soon as he is under arrest?
If this man had been arrested for a different crime, like hitting his daughter (which he didn't do anyway), he never would have been legally required to provide identification. It's completely nonsensical.