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Re: [colorforth] merging edit time and run time

On Sat, 14 May 2005, Albert van der Horst wrote:


On Wed, May 11, 2005 at 05:42:59PM -0400, maslicke@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:



---- Original message ----

Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 22:13:28 +0100
From: llew <llew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [colorforth] merging edit time and run time
To: colorforth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Isn't that PC + Linux?



The object of Linux is to hide the PC and every other piece
of hardware created under the abstraction of UNIX. That is
not same as producing computer hardware which is easy for
programmers to program.


You got the goal and the means interchanged. The  Linux
people try to make an easy environment for programmers.
They succeed to that, not badly. To that I can testify myself.
That may be what some Linux programmers think. That does not deny the reality of Linux, the purpose of which is to establish and maintain this particular abstraction, UNIX. 


Then the means is to hide or abstract away those things I'm not
currently interested in to program. You argue that this
is not necessary or helpful.
I have stated the truth of Linux, which clearly has nothing to do with creating physicial hardware which is easy to program. 


I have seen little in the way
to base this on. The logic behind abstracting away things
is compelling. (Mathematics is based on it, too. And in a way
it is the way a complex neurotic system like humans work.
The neurons behind the eye work on abstraction, like lumped
colors, right or left moving things, edges, what not.)
I'm not arguing against abstraction. However I think there is an enormous difference between abstractions made conciously and abstractions adopted and implemented unconciously. 


Chucks essay about the "user illusion" has made but a small dent in
these insights. Or maybe Chuck just warns not to get overboard, and
supplies alternatives. I've not seen him claiming that it is
*the* alternative.
Every word defined in Forth is an abstraction. Chuck is a master of abstraction. The "user illusion" is about the mismatch between what the system is physically doing, and what user believes the system is doing. 

Mark

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