Breaking backwards compatiblity

[H. S. Teoh]

On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 03:15:32PM -0400, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh at quickfur.ath.cx> wrote in message 
> news:mailman.531.1331533449.4860.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
[...]
> > (And before you shoot me down with "infinite quantities are not
> > practical in programming", I'd like to say that certain non-finite
> > arithmetic systems actually have real-life consequences in finite
> > computations. Look up "Hydra game" sometime. Or "Goldstein
> > sequences" if you're into that sorta thing.)

Argh. Epic fail on my part, it's *Goodstein* sequence, not Goldstein.


> Yea, I don't doubt that. While no game programmer, for example, would
> be caught dead having their code crunching calculus computations,
> there are some computations done in games that are obtained in the
> first place by doing some calculus (mostly physics, IIRC). Not exactly
> the same thing, but I get that applicablity of theory isn't limited to
> what the computer is actually calculating.

I think the bottom line is that a lot of this stuff needs someone who
can explain and teach it in an engaging, interesting way. It's not that
the subject matter itself is boring or stupid, but that the teacher
failed at his job and so his students find the subject boring and
stupid.


[...]
> Our course descriptions didn't have much fine print. Just one short
> vaguely-worded paragraph. I probably could have asked around and
> gotten a syllubus from previous semesters, but I didn't learn advanced
> student tricks like that until a few years into college. ;) Plus,
> that's other concerns, like scheduling and requirements. I found that
> a lot of my course selections had to be dictated more by scheduling
> and availability than much anything else.

I guess I was lucky then. There were a couple o' useless mandatory
courses I had to take, but for the most part, I got to choose what I
wanted. (And then my geeky side took over and I filled up most of my
electives with math courses... sigh...)


T

-- 
Some days you win; most days you lose.