>the long list of academic references originally posted may be of little practical value for most software developers. Oh No! That is quite the wrong way of lo

>the long list of academic references originally posted may be of little practical value for most software developers. Oh No! That is quite the wrong way of looking at it. One of my favourite quotes (attributed to Mark Twain) goes: I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. It is with that sentiment in mind that one should "read" the above list of papers. They contain the distilled essence of somebody's lifework. One does not have to read and understand completely every bit of what has been written in the paper. Indeed without the proper background, that might be quite difficult. But one should be able to browse and pick out the main ideas from the paper (this is what i try to do with all the papers/books that i read). Keywords/Jargons/Things-that-one-might-not-understand are filed away at the back of the mind so that later on when one comes across the same/related concept we can go "aha" and gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter. This is the essence of gathering and assimilating knowledge.