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Everything Is Just Functions: 1 week with David Beazley and SICP

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389 points kurinikku | 1 comments | 17 Nov 24 15:07 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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Animats ◴[17 Nov 24 19:08 UTC] No.42166199[source]▶
"Everything is just" approaches usually result in hammering things that don't fit into fitting. That often ends badly. Computing has been through, at least:

- Everything is just a function (SICP)

- Everything is just an object (Smalltalk, and to some extent Java)

- Everything is just a closure (the original Common LISP object system)

- Everything is just a file of bytes (UNIX)

- Everything is just a database (IBM System/38, Tandem)

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Maxatar ◴[17 Nov 24 19:11 UTC] No.42166225[source]▶
None of the things you mention ended badly though. I think all of those approaches you list are incredibly useful and important concepts and I am very happy that I not only know them, but that because of how universal they are I can leverage my knowledge of one approach to learn or apply another approach.
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thethimble ◴[17 Nov 24 21:16 UTC] No.42167358[source]▶
Another angle on this is that there’s many formal axiomatic ways to define computing.

Everything is just a Turing machine. Everything is just a function. Everything is the Conway’s game of life.

The fact that all of these forms are equally expressive is quite a surprise when you first discover this. Importantly, it doesn’t mean that any one set of axioms is “more correct” than the other. They’re equally expressive.

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brudgers ◴[17 Nov 24 21:49 UTC] No.42167625[source]▶
Everything is just a Turing machine.

That one ends in a tarpit where everything is possible but nothing of interest is easy.

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Animats ◴[17 Nov 24 22:14 UTC] No.42167831[source]▶
That's the generic problem with "Everything is a ...". Trying to force things into a paradigm that doesn't fit well complicates things.
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1. brudgers ◴[17 Nov 24 22:35 UTC] No.42167985[source]▶
The generic problem is every generation thinks they invented sex.

https://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/perlis-alan/quotes.html