writing for a specialized audience

[gusl]

Right now I'm reading William Cohen's book "A Computer Scientist's guide to Cell Biology", and I find the delivery to be very efficient (though I have little to compare it with), probably because he takes an informational perspective, and isn't shy about using CS concepts and terminology.

You know the "X for dummies" collection? I'd love to see some "X for geeks" series. It could be specialized into "X for mathematicians", "X for Computer Scientists", "X for type theory geeks", etc.

According to Sussman, the legacy of Computer Science is its formal language:

<< Computer Science is not a science, and its ultimate significance has little to do with computers. The computer revolution is a revolution in the way we think and in the way we express what we think. >>

I suspect that, when most scientists speak this "language", we will see greater understanding across disciplines. This is already happening.

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Tangentially, I'd like to see a book on how to cope with "bad" programming languages, all the while being a hygienist. e.g. tricks for emulating a type system, etc.

Comments

[trufflesniffer.livejournal.com]

Isn't O'Reilly pretty much 'X for geeks'?

[aisa0.livejournal.com]

Computer Science is not a science, and its ultimate significance has little to do with computers. The computer revolution is a revolution in the way we think and in the way we express what we think.

Wow, I love this. I had just been having a conversation with a friend about applying myself to non-computer skills, and describing the way in which I could apply what I've learned using computers to this new, non-computer skillset.

I wish I had said this quote, rather than fumbling through an approximation of it.

[chrisamaphone]

you might also find this helpful: computational thinking

[aisa0.livejournal.com]

This was extremely interesting to read, but I was disappointed at the lack of detail. I don't feel I walked away with anything I could apply. Did I miss that section, or are there other documents that explore this idea further? I'd love to see some examples of practice, a technique, or some concretization of what the article is discussion.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

hm, I think of this article as abstract and philosophical.
I can think of examples of computational thinking in Psychology (e.g. computational cognitive models, such as symbolic or connectionist models)
CMU seems to embody "computational thinking" more than any other school. Even the English department has professors using NLP to analyze Shakespeare. :-D

[chrisamaphone]

yeah, i guess more than "helpful" i should say interesting and perhaps inspiring. if i come across anything more concrete, i'll direct it your way.

[aisa0.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I would love that.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_tove/]

I suspect that, at the "upper levels" (college, graduate, and beyond), many disciplines are not about the things that they appear, at first blush, to be about. Linguistics is "about language" in the sense that it uses language to study a diverse range of topics, including anthropology, sociology, and thought processes. Architecture is "about buildings" in the sense that, through buildings, we study spatiality, human use patterns and relationships, psychology, and the ordering of the universe. Art is about understanding and communicating just about everything.

[jcreed.livejournal.com]

I've thought this too occasionally. Have you read "The Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics"? If I remember right, it shares an author (and very blatantly shares most of its title) with "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", and is basically "classical physics for computer scientists".

[chrisamaphone]

oh that sounds so cool i want it

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

They used to be freely available online. Still might be.

[chrisamaphone]

Tangentially, I'd like to see a book on how to cope with "bad" programming languages, all the while being a hygienist. e.g. tricks for emulating a type system, etc.

for java, isn't this basically "design patterns"? :P

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I was hoping for something better than that... involving less typing, maybe something like program transformations from a nicer language to Java.

Or, a compiler wrapper (for untyped languages) than runs some sort of Hungarian notation typechecker before compiling! :-P