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Missed one: On a computer, everything is a binary string. It's zeros and ones all the way down. While I think it simplifies the electrical engineering in that
by ogogmad 4y ago
Missed one: On a computer, everything is a binary string. It's zeros and ones all the way down.
While I think it simplifies the electrical engineering in that it provides consistency*, I don't think it provides a good interface. The problem is that there are lots of totally arbitrary ways of encoding different objects as binary strings; and lots of nonsense operations you can do on those strings. Maybe the other examples in the list are similar.
I think another relevant quote is: "It's better to have fifty functions over one type, instead of fifty types with one function each."
* - which is the main concern for EEs anyway
- tromp 4y agoOn a "functional" lambda calculus computer, everything is a function, including 0 = \x y. x 1 = \x y. y > The problem is that there are lots of totally arbitrary ways of encoding different objects as binary strings Many different objects do have natural encodings as functions though, such as Church numerals for non-negative integers.
- ogogmad 4y agoIn set theory, everything is a set, including functions. Weirdly enough, even there, there are reasons to consider different encodings of the same object, like Scott's trick vs Von Neumann encoding.