4 ms·

Let's parse

17 points by bgray 17y ago

mahmud 17y ago
Has nothing to do with "parsing", but otherwise an OK personal sentiment. I have seen this abuse of the word "parsing" yesterday as well. Seth Godin released a new ebook of motivational posters for the distraught marketer, and in it they called the act of distilling insight from data: "parsing". That's almost like calling surgery "internal haircut".
- nopassrecover 17y ago
  Parsing is deriving semantic (I.e. Higher meta level) meaning from basic data. Just because there is a more technical and focused definition of the term does not mean this definition is more correct (though admittedly it is more important in a technical forum). Consider such terms as "rational", "cache" and "cookie".
  - mahmud 17y ago
    Marketers, specially Godin, are hardly technology laymen. I know, because I am one. Marketing is a quantitative discipline now; they have enough vocabulary to describe the various stages and strategies for data processing that "parsing" is hardly an excusable synonym for "mining". Hell, they even have a rich terminology for parsing itself; ask any marketer what "scraping" is and they will know exactly what you're talking about.
- pasbesoin 17y ago
  Given that he provides a quite useful (for me, at least) link to Parsing Techniques - A Practical Guide, I don't know that "nothing" is entirely fair. I guess one could also raise the question of the context being discussed, and therefore which meanings of "parse" are being discussed. The post appears to emphasize the importance of (human) communication, with the partially explicated implication that being able to parse human communication well is an aspect of communicating well. And that this appears to him to be at least somewhat related or correlated to the interest and ability to parse and to understand parsing and/or similar constructs in programming. Anyway, I mostly wanted to comment so that people don't miss the link to the book. And mine's just another opinion, humbly offered. Regards.
erikb85 17y ago
I'd like to contribute my latest experiences about parsing, too: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=991454 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=991454 I'm sorry for my english, though. It is not my mothertounge. If U have suggestions or corrections, please don't hesitate to tell me. I am hungry to learn. (if u prefer, direct link to article: http://erikb.posterous.com/better-parsing-with-python-regexes-and-dispat http://erikb.posterous.com/better-parsing-with-python-regexe...)

17 points by bgray 17y ago

Has nothing to do with "parsing", but otherwise an OK personal sentiment. I have seen this abuse of the word "parsing" yesterday as well. Seth Godin released a new ebook of motivational posters for the distraught marketer, and in it they called the act of distilling insight from data: "parsing". That's almost like calling surgery "internal haircut".

nopassrecover 17y ago
Parsing is deriving semantic (I.e. Higher meta level) meaning from basic data. Just because there is a more technical and focused definition of the term does not mean this definition is more correct (though admittedly it is more important in a technical forum). Consider such terms as "rational", "cache" and "cookie".
- mahmud 17y ago
  Marketers, specially Godin, are hardly technology laymen. I know, because I am one. Marketing is a quantitative discipline now; they have enough vocabulary to describe the various stages and strategies for data processing that "parsing" is hardly an excusable synonym for "mining". Hell, they even have a rich terminology for parsing itself; ask any marketer what "scraping" is and they will know exactly what you're talking about.
pasbesoin 17y ago
Given that he provides a quite useful (for me, at least) link to Parsing Techniques - A Practical Guide, I don't know that "nothing" is entirely fair. I guess one could also raise the question of the context being discussed, and therefore which meanings of "parse" are being discussed. The post appears to emphasize the importance of (human) communication, with the partially explicated implication that being able to parse human communication well is an aspect of communicating well. And that this appears to him to be at least somewhat related or correlated to the interest and ability to parse and to understand parsing and/or similar constructs in programming. Anyway, I mostly wanted to comment so that people don't miss the link to the book. And mine's just another opinion, humbly offered. Regards.

erikb85 17y ago

I'd like to contribute my latest experiences about parsing, too: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=991454 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=991454 I'm sorry for my english, though. It is not my mothertounge. If U have suggestions or corrections, please don't hesitate to tell me. I am hungry to learn. (if u prefer, direct link to article: http://erikb.posterous.com/better-parsing-with-python-regexes-and-dispat http://erikb.posterous.com/better-parsing-with-python-regexe...)