Raison d'être

[mr_urf]

I started reading through the SICP book last night, mainly to see what
I was letting myself in for. The first quote in the book, I think,
sums up very nicely what I hope we'll achieve with this. It'd be great
to hear what everyone else's thoughts are.

``I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer
science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful
lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and
then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously.
We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful,
error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I
think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new
directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer
science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't
become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world
has too many of those already. What you know about computing other
people will learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is
only in your hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is
intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you
were first led up to it, that you can make it more.''

Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922-February 7, 1990)

[Ulises]

> ``I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer
> science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful
> lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and
> then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously.
> We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful,
> error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I
> think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new
> directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer
> science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't
> become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world
> has too many of those already. What you know about computing other
> people will learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is
> only in your hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is
> intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you
> were first led up to it, that you can make it more.''

Sums up rather perfectly the antithesis of what's wrong with computing
today (think software factories, etc.)

U

[Chris McGrath]

I was watching some of the SRC 2010 videos today. Keavy made a good point in her talk that it's a lot easier to have fun with software than with physical objects. You can play with move bits around the computer with a lot less effort than moving physical objects.

Chris