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Serious question: Did that metaphor/analogy/whatever actually help your friend? Because I don't get it at all.
by mattdeboard 13y ago
Serious question: Did that metaphor/analogy/whatever actually help your friend? Because I don't get it at all.
- freudien 13y agoI think if you replace "rectangle" with "right-angle triangles", it would help immensely.
- Crito 13y agoI'm still not sure I get it. Maybe 'triangles are more complex, but allow more complex results, like programming languages are more complex than other input languages humans use (like shortcut/mouse-action languages used in GUI programs like Photoshop), but programming languages allow more complex results'? In other words, triangle building block languages are the building-block equivalent of Turing equivalence?
- freudien 13y agoI think the basic premise is: Programming languages are the building blocks for all tools. When faced with a broken/useless tool, knowing how to build a new one is useful.
- chacham15 13y agoYea, it did. I guess I should have specified non-square rectangles technically, but thats what people usually think of when they hear rectangle. Basically, the more fundamental the building block the more work it takes to build something, but the wider variety of things you can build.