On Thu, May 18, 2006 at 11:53:40PM -0400, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
On Wed, 17 May 2006, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
I disagree. For me practice is much more important than theory. There are endless theoretical issues with software, yet it generally works. For example, the old theories of software development say that the linux kernel development model does not work. Theories should be based on observation.
Theories that aren't based on observation (and/or logical proofs from axioms) aren't theories by any scientific standard. They're called speculations.
This is true. To me what Hans is talking about is one of the distinctions between engineering and science. A scientist must make sure that his theory holds together in all ways possible, and must test it in reality. An engineer just needs to know what works for a particular and specific application. Hans seems more interested in an engineering solution than a scientific one.i
Theory can be extremely useful; two times already I have had an engineer try to convince me that they can come up with a generic algorithm to solve in polynomial time what I classified as an NP-hard problem. Next time I am betting beer on it.
Best,
Chris.
------------------- chris@mccormick.cx http://mccormick.cx