Re: Re: Re: Re: error with Sum and
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg102486] Re: [mg102459] Re: [mg102443] Re: [mg102437] Re: error with Sum and
- From: DrMajorBob <btreat1 at austin.rr.com>
- Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:03:23 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <h5bk64$hlm$1@smc.vnet.net> <200908070932.FAA15211@smc.vnet.net>
- Reply-to: drmajorbob at bigfoot.com
I'd never assume my wrench or screwdriver is perfect; but I do expect them to behave in similar fashion every time I pick them up. Bobby On Mon, 10 Aug 2009 03:14:12 -0500, Elton Kurt TeKolste <tekolste at fastmail.us> wrote: > There is a concept in the computer programming community called the > "leaky abstraction." (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaky_abstraction > ) > > The gist of this concept is that (to a first approximation) all > human-implemented abstractions leak -- no matter how hard you try, there > will always be in some circumstances manifestations of the lower-level > infrastructure that supports the abstraction. > > So, for example: TCPIP always delivers correct packets -- unless the > transmission lines are down or your power supply is interrupted. > > In this case, the abstraction that leaks is the ability to make a proper > symbolic sum. > > The reasons that all abstractions are leaky are > 1) it is generally not humanly possible to anticipate all of the > situations in which the nasty plumbing will become visible > 2) to the extent that it is humanly possible it is not generally > practical to fix them all (you probably don't want to know what > Mathematica would cost if it were perfect, or how long you would have > to wait to see it) > > In the real world, where cost and time matters, each of us needs to take > ultimate responsibility for the correctness of our results and not > presume that our tools are perfect. > > Kurt > > > On Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:19 -0400, "Richard Fateman" > <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> wrote: >> George Woodrow III wrote:... >> > Also including a private response from Richard: >> > > Regards, > Kurt Tekolste > > -- DrMajorBob at bigfoot.com
- References:
- Re: error with Sum and Infinity
- From: Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu>
- Re: error with Sum and Infinity