07/16/07
The Mole once again had professional reason to refer colleagues to Perlis's Epigrams. And once again as usual the Mole took a moment to skim through the list (having pulled it up in a browser to verify the link). The epigram that caught his eye on this occasion -- which was not the one where the thread had started -- was #112: "Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.".
Several months ago the Mole went to a talk by Peter J. Denning at the Computer History Museum. Now the Mole really wanted to enjoy and be impressed by the talk. The Mole has a high opinion of Denning; the Mole has enjoyed reading Denning's columns over the years; the Mole even frequently points to the "Ladder of Competence" in Denning's September 2002 column, "Career Redux".
The Mole was disappointed. The Mole was further disappointed when the ideas reappeared in the latest Communications of the ACM (as "Computing is a Natural Science"). It's not that they are bad ideas. They're very good ideas. The problem is that the Professor doth protest too much, methinks.
As Perlis said, "Computer Science is embarrassed by the computer.".
08/18/06
The Mole must begin this blog with a sad tale, a confession of youthful arrogance and ignorance, an episode he regrets to this day, a warning to anyone who will take heed.
When the Mole was a freshman, Alan Perlis was still teaching CS 221a, the introductory course in Computer Science for potential majors. The Mole, who had by then already been programming for years, felt that he would learn nothing new in the class and talked his way out of it. Therein lay the arrogance. The Mole did not bother to inform himself just who Alan Perlis was. Therein lay the ignorance (perhaps with a layer of arrogance on top).
The Mole's experience in CS 222b in the Spring semester was, of course, close to disastrous. The Mole did eventually recover and right his career in computing, but wonders to this day how his life would be different if he had been a little more humble.
As far as the Mole knows and recalls, CS 221a was taught using APL and the final project was to write a Pascal compiler. So much for Hello, World!
In the years since, the Mole has often remarked that some difficult programming situation reminds him of one or another of Perlis's Epigrams. All too often, the point is lost on an audience not inclined to thoughtful reflection. The Mole is therefore setting out to offer commentaries on Perlis's Epigrams to show just how much depth of insight is really contained in these little gems.
