Recent Posts
Family History in the Boroughs
Rewriting Naur's "Programming as Theory Building"
Peter Naur was undoubtedly a great computer scientist: Turing award winner, co-creator of the influential Algol language, and co-inventor of the Backus-Naur notation used to explain the options of programs and program routines. The significance of Naur’s contributions are beyond reproach. One of my favorite works of his is “Programming as Theory Building”.
However, the language, style, and approachability make this article less-accessible, and that is a shame. In this post I’d like to humbly submit my edit: “Programming as Theory Building 1.01.”
The Cupid of Chelsea
Happy 2019! Here’s a story from the holiday times.
The other night, Lauren and I came downtown to return some pants in Chelsea. It was a cold evening and it had gotten dark so we were heading up W18th in a hurry.
As we were walking, I got a few steps ahead of Lauren such that it might have seemed we were travelling independently. As I crossed a driveway an elderly gentleman on a walker stopped and said to me:
Hey there buddy. There’s a lady walking behind you and you both have the same kind of happiness. I’d like to introduce you two.
I don’t know what he had in mind (faking a heart attack?) but I laughed and told him that that lady was, in fact, my wife and that I’m glad he thought we looked like our happinesses belonged together. Because they do.