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Asri-unix.1285 net.works utzoo!decvax!cca!WITTMAN@RU-GREEN@sri-unix Thu Apr 22 09:11:24 1982 WorkS (Must be your day to get mail from me, Mel.. Hope I'm not being TOO tedious)

Mel,

I'm not part of the WorkS group but wanted to say a few words; see if they're worth passing along.

**********

I've been reading the WorkS list for my daily entertainment, and find it fascinating and enlightening. (Thanks). What moves me to write is reference to a "language & mind set" theory regarding languages (attributed to Whorf).

An issue of "Science 81" contained an article about Language, maintaining that research had demonstrated that people whose first language was Japanese performed certain processing on one side of the brain whereas all others performed those tasks on the other side of the brain and implied that Language may indeed impose on the PHYSICAL structure of the brain. If this is true, there are frightening prospects for creating languages which will eliminate the need for genetic engineering in some sense, but that really isn't the point; the question is how much relevance might this have to "first programing language" (an influence which may grow worse as younger and younger children are exposed to primitive programing languages).

I don't know what Genius is, but perhaps it's the ability to rise above environment. I don't claim to be up to the intellectual power of the WorkS list personnel, but I'm supposed to be fairly intelligent; and I find it difficult to change environments; even when the new environment has some VERY nice features, I find an immense number of things I no longer know how to do, and have a feeling I'm not using the new system as it was intended (until I really ABSORB it which takes a long time). (As an example, I once tried to write a program in APL with very little exposure; it looked like FORTRAN. I also know some very bright people who STILL express certain concepts in 709x assembler. And apparently the "A, B language order tests" indicate my difficulty shifting gears is not due exclusively to my own intellectual shortcomings).

What I expected to see in the WorkS discussion were abstract discussions of what a WorkStation was. What I have seen are:

1. Occasional irrelevancies (eg, the Header gripes, which detract from the information content)

2. Semi-relevancies (eg, discussion of a particular Micro, OS or communications system, which aren't really relevant but which I find rather educational)

3. Advertisements and criticisms of various extant systems (probably part of the above item; also very interesting, but 2

perhaps not germane)

4. A little theory now and then (which I thought was what this group was all about). (And I don't know if Whorf fits in this category or not).

I would frankly lose a lot if Items 2 and 3 above disappeared, but I wonder if they should be such a focus. At Rutgers, our CS program uses languages as illustrative lab tools to practice general principles taught in class, but rarely focuses on the language itself. I wonder if WorkS mightn't be more satisfying to some of its participants if the products cited were used only as examples to illustrate some general principle of what a WorkStation should be.

The intellectual Power of this group (which I don't claim to be up to) is likely to be one of the few places one might find a collection of "genius" which can rise above "what is" and talk more about "what ought". I've seen a lot of (kind of hidden) complaints about that, and I wonder if it's not part of the "language" problem; also, we can only criticize or laud what we know - some members may not have been exposed to Everything (there's so MUCH of it) and are trapped into advocating a buzzword (eg, UNIX) instead of a concept (performing function FERN, in a UNIX-like way).

I think the pragmatic advice transmitted about what systems exist and what they do is invaluable to people who actually have to choose systems to work with (probably all of us), but I hear an undercurrent of discontent, so I've taken a selfish position: I want to continue to be amused (highest sense: entertained and enlightened) by this Digest, and don't want to see anyone get discouraged and go away.

By the way, all I know about a WorkStation is that it appears to be a semi-private or private mini-environment tailored to getting your particular tasks done.

Thanks, People. Sorry for the intrusion.

Barry Wittman (Spectator)

* * * * * * * * *

Thanks, Mel. I'm glad you're now the moderator (you're so helpful and accessible).

Barry -------

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