Why Conniving is Better than Planning

A higher level language derives its great power form the fact that it tends to impose structure on the problem solving behavior for the user. Besides providing a library of useful subroutines with a uniform calling sequence, the author of a higher level language imposes his theory of problem s...

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Main Author: Sussman, Gerald Jay
Language:en_US
Published: 2004
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/5813
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author Sussman, Gerald Jay
author_facet Sussman, Gerald Jay
author_sort Sussman, Gerald Jay
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description A higher level language derives its great power form the fact that it tends to impose structure on the problem solving behavior for the user. Besides providing a library of useful subroutines with a uniform calling sequence, the author of a higher level language imposes his theory of problem solving on the user. By choosing what primitive data structures, control structures, and operators he presents to the user, he makes the implementation of some algorithms more difficult than others, thus discouraging some techniques and encouraging others. So, to be "good", a higher level language must not only simplify the job of programming, by providing features which package programming structures commonly found in the domain for which the language was designed, it must also do its best to discourage the use of structures which lead to "bad" algorithms.
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spelling mit-1721.1/58132019-04-12T14:51:45Z Why Conniving is Better than Planning Sussman, Gerald Jay A higher level language derives its great power form the fact that it tends to impose structure on the problem solving behavior for the user. Besides providing a library of useful subroutines with a uniform calling sequence, the author of a higher level language imposes his theory of problem solving on the user. By choosing what primitive data structures, control structures, and operators he presents to the user, he makes the implementation of some algorithms more difficult than others, thus discouraging some techniques and encouraging others. So, to be "good", a higher level language must not only simplify the job of programming, by providing features which package programming structures commonly found in the domain for which the language was designed, it must also do its best to discourage the use of structures which lead to "bad" algorithms. 2004-10-01T20:37:46Z 2004-10-01T20:37:46Z 1972-02-01 AIM-255 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/5813 en_US AIM-255 32 p. 10280516 bytes 870890 bytes application/postscript application/pdf application/postscript application/pdf
spellingShingle Sussman, Gerald Jay
Why Conniving is Better than Planning
title Why Conniving is Better than Planning
title_full Why Conniving is Better than Planning
title_fullStr Why Conniving is Better than Planning
title_full_unstemmed Why Conniving is Better than Planning
title_short Why Conniving is Better than Planning
title_sort why conniving is better than planning
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/5813
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