4 ms·

Can you elaborate as to why? Snark is not really the goal here.

• chrisseaton 8y ago
  > Can you elaborate as to why? How can I elaborate on answer that I don't have?
  • vertline3 8y ago
    I think just your first post is a snappy reply to the headline, but doesn't seem to address the content of the paper in any way, so I was interested in your specific thoughts about the content of the paper.
• YorkshireSeason 8y ago
  It's a perfectly valid, and indeed important question. Self-application is an important form of scientific methodology. Think e.g. of programming languages development: one of the first things you do is bootstrap a compiler.
  • sporkologist 8y ago
    You're conflating science publishing philosophy with standard software development?
    • YorkshireSeason 8y ago
      Programming language development is not standard software development. PL research is a discipline with no really feasible empirical methods for robust and replicable evaluation of programming language ideas. Using self-application is a test of internal coherence -- if your new language is not good at writing a compiler, then maybe it isn't such a good idea. Self-application is a well-known scientific methodology. Would you trust a physical theory that predicted the impossibility of physicists?