Re: Some ID person please explain


Alan Wostenberg wrote:
Mark James wrote:

Yes, programming is engineering and not science (in the pure science
sense) but that was not my point. My point is that "elegant"
programming allows for changes, modifications, and alterations without
being "messy". Regardless of the original purpose of the program,
a "messy" program is difficult to deal with no matter what you do
with it. In an "elegant" program, one can add, alter, change with
ease.

If you've built software you know it's full of design tradeoffs -- one
of them being design elegance vs time to market. It wouldn't be fair
to criticize a design as "messy" if the author was just out to make a
fast buck and never had elegance as the goal. We software developers
like to tell the customer you can have any two of the triad: Good.
Fast. Cheap.

So, any fair critique of design ought to state it's assumptions. In
your apple case, your assumption is that the design purpose of apples
is to taste good to humans who prefer sweet to tart ones. Was that our
designer's intent? Only way to know would be to read the user manual:
what are apples *for* ?

And your point about programming being engineering not science raises
an interesing question about competencies. Biologists are not design
experts. Engineers are.

Oh damn. This makes a whole field of study seem seriously suspect.
Those archaeologists have thought that they can recognize a designed
tool from a natural stone but they're apparently labouring under false
pretences. Unless they've got a programming engineer with them to check
the artifacts they're not competent to assess them.

.

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