[SGVLUG] Toxic Exposure [was: Re: PHP question]

[John Kreznar]

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Thank you Dustin, for reminding us that this mailing list can still in
addition host thoughtful written content.

My niece recently enrolled her bright 1-year old son into a Montessori
school.  This alarmed me because he is too impressionable at that age to
be able to defend himself against the "prior exposure" of which Dijkstra
writes, exposure in this case not to BASIC, but to some proprietary
operating system.  This would leave him "mentally mutilated beyond hope
of regeneration" to an understanding of what a computer really is.  No
wonder Richard Stallman likens it to giving cigarettes to the child. [1]
Paraphrasing your remarks, criticizing later the operating system that
someone first learned computing in is like criticizing their mother.
They will say "But a GUI is what a computer IS!"

Dustin Laurence <dllaurence at dslextreme.com> writes:

> In this vein, there is an interesting essay by Dijkstra:

> http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/ewd498.html

I'll be looking at this for more for my niece.  Thanks!

[1] http://www.linuxworld.com/2003/0401.indiaopensource.html


- -- 
OpenPGP key: http://ininx.com
 John E. Kreznar jek at ininx.com 9F1148454619A5F08550 705961A47CC541AFEF13

   Operating a computer with a GUI is like driving a car with
   an animated cartoon in place of the clear front window.

   Email is the culmination of communication.  Voice, and all else, if
   done at all, is ephemeral preliminary to the email.  Email provides
   escape from the tyranny of forced extemporization.

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