Tags / 8 quotes from 8 sources
#function
Epigrams On Programming
On structuring data
Functions delay binding: data structures induce binding. Moral: Structure data late in the programming process.
Hello Haskell, Goodbye Lisp
Macros in lisp
Another beauty of Lisp is its macro facility. I’ve not seen its like in any other language. Because the forms of code and data are equivalent, Lisps macro are not just text substitution, they allow you to modify code structure at compile-time. It’s like having a compiler…
In The Name Of Love | Jacobin
Ideology
Historian Mario Liverani reminds us that “ideology has the function of presenting exploitation in a favorable light to the exploited, as advantageous to the disadvantaged.”
Life, The Multiverse And Everything: An Introduction To The Ideas Of Humberto Maturana Interpreting Maturana
We must abandon causal concepts
Maturana's theory also indicates that we must abandon causal concepts such as those of the "purpose" of symptoms: the "function" of disorders: the "resistance" of this complainant etc. All of these are attributions of an observer. As Kelly pointed out the notion of 'resistance'…
Mind: A Brief Introduction (John R. Searle)
Minds are like carburetors, thermostats and clocks
another appeal of the functionalist account of mental states is that it seemed to assimilate the mental realm to a very familiar realm of human functional entities. Thus if we ask, What is a carburetor? What is a thermostat? What is a clock?—all of these questions are answered…
The Ego Trick (baggini, Julian)
The self is a function, not a substance
We only go wrong if we’re too impressed by this unity and assume that it means that underlying it is a single thing. But the self is not a substance or thing, it is a function of what a certain collection of stuff does.
The Functional Art: An Introduction To Information Graphics And Visualization
Form should be constrained by function
It is true, as we just have seen, that function doesn’t necessarily determine form. But it is also true that the form of a technological object must depend on the tasks it should help with. This is one of the most important principles to re-member when dealing with infographics…
Towards An Ontology Of Software: A Requirements Engineering Perspective
Artifacts have proper functions
notion of (technical) artifact. We are aware that many such notions have been discussed in the literature, but the one by Baker [20] works well for us: “Artifacts are objects intentionally made to serve a given purpose”; “Artifacts have proper functions that they are…