Sunday, March 25, 2007

On the Web No One Can Agree on the Schema

1 comment:

Tony Morris said...

Hey Andy,
I saw this comment the other day, 'In Ruby, if a is [1,2,3] and b is [10,20,30], then a+b is [1,2,3,10,20,30]. Why not [11,22,33], which Tim Sweeney in an earlier article suggests "intuitively makes sense"?'

You know that things are out of hand when the + function is "intuitive" while also not being commutative. Heck, this is grade 1 mathematics!!

I distinctly recall noting the commutativity relationship in addition to avoid recomputing and optimising my simple arithmetic, when I was 5 years old!! I could tell you what 2 + 4 is simply because I already knew what 4 + 2 is.

I see two choices; 1) concede and shake your head in shame at the whole big mess 2) refute the Ruby hyperbole. I applaud anyone who does this, even if they have to lie out their arse to do it.