From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Craig Franck Subject: Re: Software Engineering and Dreamers Date: 1997/05/26 Message-ID: <5md5q8$slo@mtinsc04.worldnet.att.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 244095254 References: <5m57nu$7si@bcrkh13.bnr.ca> <5m859v$2qr@mtinsc04.worldnet.att.net> <5mb3ra$1qj@bcrkh13.bnr.ca> Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-05-26T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: kaz@vision.crest.nt.com (Kaz Kylheku) wrote: >In article <5m859v$2qr@mtinsc04.worldnet.att.net>, >Craig Franck wrote: > >>I think you have a real bias against software; you could have just as >>easily have said "software runs technology". There may be a symbiotic > >I don't think I have a bias against software! You might only perceive >that if you think that hardware is somehow superior, in that the job >of a hardware designer carries more prestige. I think they are both equally important. I just thought of "real" technology as being more important (like "real" science as opposed to say, political science or some branches of psychology that don't get the same amount of respect.) >>You can define technology to mean just hardware, but software may just >>be plastic hardware. A lot of network and data communications algorithms >>and protocols get wired up as hardware for speed, in which case there is >>no software to discriminate against at the lower levels. > >Digital logic still isn't technology. It's really a form of software. You can >change the underlying technology without changing the logic, and obtain the >same behavior, modulo a difference in performance. A data register made of flip >flops or an address decoder made from combinational logic can be done up in >TTL, CMOS, ECL, vacuum tubes or using water pipes and valves. The essential, >abstract behavior is totally separate from the implementation technology. > >Unless you work in marketing, you wouldn't call an OR gate ``disjunctive >technology''. You see what I'm getting at? Sort of? :) That you do not feel digital logic is technology is telling. Perhaps it is more a matter of technique or represents progress of some other sort. (I don't think calculus is "technology" but represented an advancement of mathematics when it was invented by Newton (or that Leibnitz fellow)). So, a NAND gate is not technology, but transistors and the ability to photograph millions of them on to something the size of your thumb is. If that is what you mean, I think I can grasp the distinction. (We just need to come up with some other word or catchy phrase for the ad people.) :-) -- Craig clfranck@worldnet.att.net Manchester, NH BBN has the brightest bit-heads on the planet. -- David Goodtree