lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2001]   [Dec]   [4]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
    /
    Date
    From
    SubjectRe: Coding style - a non-issue

    On Mon, 3 Dec 2001, Daniel Phillips wrote:

    > [...] Please see my post above where I point out 'evolution isn't
    > random'. Your genes have a plan, if only a vague one. It goes
    > something like this: "we'll allow random variations, but only along
    > certain lines, within limits, and in certain combinations, and we'll
    > try to stick to variations that haven't killed us in the past."

    so what you say in essence is that "evolution isnt random, it's random"
    ;-) The fact that the brownean motion is 'vaguely directed' (ie. evolution
    has a limited amount of 'memory' of past experience coded into the DNA)
    does not make it less random. Randomness does not have to be completely
    undirected - perhaps you know a different definition for 'random'. Just
    the fact that we got from bacteria to humans and from bacteria to trees
    shows that it's not only random, it's also unstable and chaotic. (the same
    initial conditions resulted in multiple, wildly different and almost
    completely unrelated set of end results.)

    and nobody claimed Linux development was totally (chryptographically)
    random. We just claim that Linux development has a fair dose of randomness
    and unpredictability besides having a fair dose of structure, and that its
    development model is much closer to evolution than to the formal methods
    of software development.

    at which point i think we finally agree?

    Ingo

    -
    To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
    the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
    More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
    Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

    \
     
     \ /
      Last update: 2005-03-22 13:13    [W:2.741 / U:0.036 seconds]
    ©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site