We're talking about Knuth's opinion.
The whole point behind Literate Programming is that you can't read non-literate code as literature, and Knuth believes being able to read code as literature makes it easier to understand. If you could read any sort of code as literature then why would we need literate programming? So given that virtual all code in existence is non-literate it's pretty obvious that trying to promote code reading as literature reading is not going to work that well. The point of this article is that the author tried it both ways (code reading groups reading code as literature and treating it as an investigation) and found the investigative approach worked better. He's not expressing an opinion or proposing a hypothesis, he's simply reporting what worked and what did not.
to successfully create a code reading culture you must acknowledge that in practice examining most code is not at all like reading literature and instead needs to be approached more like a scientific investigation
OK, so that's an interesting hypothesis, what evidence do you have to support your hypothesis? Doesn't it make more sense that if you want people to read your code, you should make it easy to read (that is, make it literate)?
Evidence? Did you RTFA? I've just given you a one line synopsis, if you want evidence you'll find it there.
Knuth actually provided an anecdote that reinforces this point so I very much doubt he disagrees with it.
I read Knuth's Literate Programming, and I would say I accurately portrayed his viewpoint. Would you like to read the book and tell me how you think I misunderstood it? To restate, Knuth doesn't think all code is literature, he thinks code can be literature, and he taught how to get there.
We're not talking about Knuth's book. We're talking about the article, which you apparently didn't bother to read. In it Knuth provides an anecdote that supports the author's contention. Please, go and RTFA.
Knuth disagrees...
Knuth (and many others) think code should be more like literature, but to successfully create a code reading culture you must acknowledge that in practice examining most code is not at all like reading literature and instead needs to be approached more like a scientific investigation. Knuth actually provided an anecdote that reinforces this point so I very much doubt he disagrees with it.
I disagree. Technically the first prostitute wasn't a prostitute until she'd done the deed, and that didn't happen until she'd marketed her wares. Marketing is the oldest profession, prostitution a very close second.
Only if he or she advertised first. But if he or she was solicited, which seems more likely, then prostitution was the oldest.
Name one standard graphics system used by more than one operating system
Everyone uses one everyday. I've got four implementations by different vendors on the system I'm using right now. There are implementations for Linux, OS X, Windows, and pretty much everything else. Have you heard of HTML? It's the network transparent UI platform that the world has settled on.
See and I've tried them. I really have, and even after two or three months, I had to go back because my living room felt like a damn jail cell or dentist office. I tried them again recently too and I still hate them. Why can't they produce them with more normal colour temperatures?
They do. From the first link in the post you replied to: "AVAILABLE IN WARM WHITE (3000K) or DAYLIGHT(5500K)".
Snowden didn't flee to get "better treatment," he wasn't being mistreated in the US. He fled law enforcement because he broke the law. He is a fugitive from justice.
Not sure how you got that wrong.
"Broke the law"? There hasn't been a trial. Not sure how you got that wrong.
Perhaps he looked at the way in which the US treated Bradley Manning and decided he'd get better treatment elsewhere?
I have always had an honest question about the data on global warming that no one can seem to answer so I will try here...
It's such as simple question that I can't believe that "no one can seem to answer". More likely you just don't accept their answer for some reason. Anyway Google "climate proxies" and you'll have your answer.
Could you remind me again, won't this be the 15th year since global warming stopped?
There IS a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998
Are you saying the oceans, which are all connected, are as much as a constant 4" different in level, say, between NYC and, oh, Denmark or Japan?
Yes. See, for example, this Straight Dope which mentions that there is a 8" difference between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at Panama.
IDC anticipates that desktops will suffer the biggest slowdown with not only a 4.2% downtick this year but also continued, albeit slower, declines through at least 2017
Desktop sales shrinking for that long is not an insignificant shrinking of the market (segment), it's a sign that the market has permanently changed. There will always be a market for desktops but it's in the process of becoming a niche segment.http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3518209&cid=43088747#
Which I don't see happening with desktops anytime soon if ever.
I find it strange that I can install a flash blocker that allows me to whitelist certain websites but that similar functionality seems to be missing for Java... the easy answer is to not allow java to run unless the site or even specific URL is in a whitelist.
There is a Firefox feature request to add the ability to block all types of media (Flash, applets, other plugins) by site: bug 94035. It was created in 2001. More than 100 duplicate bugs have been added over the decade since. It's still not been implemented.
Wishing without work is like fishing without bait. -- Frank Tyger