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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 10.182.252.166 with SMTP id zt6mr13228415obc.17.1397916297733; Sat, 19 Apr 2014 07:04:57 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!feeder01.blueworldhosting.com!peer03.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!c1no572843igq.0!news-out.google.com!dz10ni15077qab.1!nntp.google.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 09:04:57 -0500 Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 10:04:57 -0400 From: Alan Browne User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.9; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.4.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Heartbleed References: <1ljwj8f.1wqbhvuabsdw1N%csampson@inetworld.net> <51c7d6d4-e3be-44d5-a4ce-f7e875345588@googlegroups.com> <%J32v.70539$kp1.45343@fx14.iad> <87tx9so50m.fsf@adaheads.sparre-andersen.dk> <7aadnRuFVMGd7MzOnZ2dnUVZ_tednZ2d@giganews.com> In-Reply-To: Message-ID: X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-U94dSBoLcLI8mJAuItm8cibNJzVfp9VaJfhviP0pCU3yh5dq2GpEviUcIWWk3G/5rhPjkXS+z/BM80i!UXImu3klaXN3xbVfbzcHyjOc2/+Db/kOZe6VbuxFh7XviSPRN/oWJ91PKAhuhlsSsviqsJJ8yQ== X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 3295 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Received-Bytes: 3601 X-Received-Body-CRC: 1584686094 Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:19416 Date: 2014-04-19T10:04:57-04:00 List-Id: On 2014.04.18, 18:20 , Jeffrey Carter wrote: > On 04/18/2014 02:06 PM, Alan Browne wrote: >> On 2014.04.18, 16:45 , Jeffrey Carter wrote: >>> >>> Not really. As more than 95% of the world's population demonstrate, t= he >>> average person can understand the metric system. My experience is tha= t >>> the average developer cannot understand the concepts underlying Ada. >> >> 1. '... to most Americans.' > > Most Americans can understand the metric system if they have to. The US= > military takes typical Americans and has them working exclusively in > metric in short order. I know. The metric system has been the primary system ow W&M in the US=20 since before 1900. But they plugged in an exception for commerce and of = course that killed broad adoption. Post WW-II the US military went=20 metric to make cooperation with other countries easier. Exceptions=20 include navigation terms (nautical miles, knots) for the floaters and=20 fliers. But no. Most Americans do not function well in metric in everyday=20 situations. I get blank stares when I use kilograms - then "what's that = in ounces" and litres. They're (sometimes) able to deal with metres=20 ("that's about a yard, right?"). > >> 2. 'twas a joke son, a joke I say. > > I know. That never stopped me before. > --=20 "Big data can reduce anything to a single number, but you shouldn=E2=80=99t be fooled by the appearance of exactitude." -Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis, NYT, 2014.04.07