4 ms·

I mean this is really about set operations; thinking of it in terms of bits and integers doesn't really add anything.

• munificent 9y ago
  The mechanics do matter because it's fundamentally a mechanical device.
  • Sniffnoy 9y ago
    What about it involves thinking of elements as bits and sets as whole numbers? I'm not seeing it. Everything you just described is just a physical representation of sets and operations on sets. I don't see any step where elements are mapped to powers of 2 and added up (unless you for some reason insist on thinking that way of aggregating elements into a set), nor any step where a number is broken into bits (again, unless you for some reason insist on thinking that way of breaking a set into its elements).
    • munificent 9y ago
      > What about it involves thinking of elements as bits and sets as whole numbers? I said bitwise arithmetic, not binary numbers. :) > Everything you just described is just a physical representation of sets and operations on sets. Sure, and how is the set represented and its operations implemented? In the Oracle, each set is represented by a bitmask with a bit position for each element in the set. Set operations are implemented as bitwise operations on those bitmasks.
• spenczar5 9y ago
  I’m more used to bits than sets, so it worked for me. People have different backgrounds.