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Humans produce sounds, lions produce sounds. Humans have mouths, lions have mouths. Where is the substantial difference between the two? Even conceptually, int

by mfukar 16y ago

Humans produce sounds, lions produce sounds. Humans have mouths, lions have mouths. Where is the substantial difference between the two? Even conceptually, interpreters and compilers differ in certain aspects. For me, the most striking one is that compilers do not fully emulate the results of the given program (one could argue that they do to some extent, when performing optimizations - like when gcc -O3 transforms the whole process to a single printf() call). There are many others, but I hope you get the point.

jemfinch 16y ago
> Humans produce sounds, lions produce sounds. Humans have mouths, lions have mouths. Where is the substantial difference between the two? I asked you a question regarding your previous claim. You responded with a downvote and a rhetorical counter but, again, no answer. I'm mildly familiar with the JVM. I'm very familiar with Python's virtual machine implementation. I ask again: what is the substantial difference between the two? Rhetorical wizardry does not impress me: I actually want to know what your answer is. You said that there is a "qualitative difference" between the two and now have replied implying that it's a substantial difference. I don't understand your reticence to give a real answer here. > Even conceptually, interpreters and compilers differ in certain aspects. That has absolutely nothing to do with my question, and I don't see how it would substantially differentiate between the two implementations we're discussing.
- mfukar 16y ago
  It wasn't my claim. I responded nonetheless. Whether you wish to accept my answer or not is not something I am interested in.
  - jemfinch 16y ago
    My apologies for mistaking you with the OP. Still, neither one of you has actually answered the question I asked. You offered an analogy for rhetorical effect; surely you can see how that isn't actually an answer.
stcredzero 16y ago
Humans produce sounds, lions produce sounds. Humans have mouths, lions have mouths. Where is the substantial difference between the two? The endpoints are easy. My point is that there are so many things nowadays which are really somewhat in the middle, and there's no clear line of demarcation.

by mfukar 16y ago

jemfinch 16y ago

> Humans produce sounds, lions produce sounds. Humans have mouths, lions have mouths. Where is the substantial difference between the two? I asked you a question regarding your previous claim. You responded with a downvote and a rhetorical counter but, again, no answer. I'm mildly familiar with the JVM. I'm very familiar with Python's virtual machine implementation. I ask again: what is the substantial difference between the two? Rhetorical wizardry does not impress me: I actually want to know what your answer is. You said that there is a "qualitative difference" between the two and now have replied implying that it's a substantial difference. I don't understand your reticence to give a real answer here. > Even conceptually, interpreters and compilers differ in certain aspects. That has absolutely nothing to do with my question, and I don't see how it would substantially differentiate between the two implementations we're discussing.

mfukar 16y ago
It wasn't my claim. I responded nonetheless. Whether you wish to accept my answer or not is not something I am interested in.
- jemfinch 16y ago
  My apologies for mistaking you with the OP. Still, neither one of you has actually answered the question I asked. You offered an analogy for rhetorical effect; surely you can see how that isn't actually an answer.

stcredzero 16y ago

Humans produce sounds, lions produce sounds. Humans have mouths, lions have mouths. Where is the substantial difference between the two? The endpoints are easy. My point is that there are so many things nowadays which are really somewhat in the middle, and there's no clear line of demarcation.