[OT] Is the D(n) PL discovery or invention?

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Justin Johansson" <no at spam.com> wrote in message 
news:i3e758$a67$1 at digitalmars.com...
> This question is a play on the eternal question
> "is mathematics discovery or invention?"
>
> There are many web references to the latter topic
> and web search is easy, take this one for example:
>
> "IS mathematics a discovery or invention"
> Friday, 16. November 2007, 07:19:16
> http://my.opera.com/maxx%20steel/blog/2007/11/16/is-mathematics-a-discovery-or-invention
>
> and your own web searches will uncover a myriad of ideas and opinions
> on this very subject.
>
> My discussion starter is now about programming languages (PLs)
> and their relation to discovery or invention.
>
> Since PLs are somewhat related to maths, does it bare fruit
> to ask the same question of PLs themselves?
>
> Obvious questions that might be asked include:
>
> What is the definition of discovery versus invention?
>
> Is there a gray-scale (or a continuum) between discovery and invention?
>
> In the context of the D PL, where does D(version n) lie in the continuum
> between discovery and invention.
>
> I have my own ideas on this subject and will admit that my
> leaning is towards discovery.
>
> What's your opinion?
>

My view on it:

- Math *concepts* are debatably either invention or discovery.

- Math *notation* is ostensibly a creation. Although, whether or not all 
"creation" is really nothing more than "discovery" in disguise is a question 
philosphers could probably spend centuries discussing and getting nowhere 
on.

- Specific programming languages, such as D, are in the same category as 
math *notation*. Just like math notation, they are *arbitrary* 
representations of abstract ideas.

- The abstract ideas that programming languages represent (ex: functions, 
expressions, metaprogramming, etc.) are debatably either invention or 
discovery in the same way as math *concepts*. In fact, most, if not all of 
them, are generally considered to *be* mathematical concepts.

- Whether math *concepts* and programming *concepts* are invention or 
discovery: I suspect that question is really just thinking about it the 
wrong way. Our categorizational-loving minds have created (or discovered) 
the categories of "invention" and "discovery". Math (concepts) may merely be 
evidence that those categories, like many human-created (or discovered) 
categories (for example, biology's binomial nomenclature) are imperfect 
classifications that do not always bisect their domains into clear "in" and 
"out" sections.