Post #2232166
2023-09-17 09:07 UTC
users desire a practical feature, however a developer, instead, desires an opportunity to explain why the data structures of enough video formats resemble one-way linked-lists so the feature is "algorithmically impossible", users counter with examples of other pieces of software that implement the feature, the gymnastics begin, and it becomes apparent to us, if not the people involved, that a fundamental philosophical debate is occurring about the nature of what 'solving a problem' even means
Replies (1)
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@jk@mastodon.social 2023-09-17 09:11
for the user, they want to press a button and get the expected result most of the time. for the developer, they want an optimal, perfect algorithm that solves every mathematically possible permutation of the problem at any scale, and, seeing the mess the real world presents them, would rather completely elide the feature than entertain the idea that a problem can be solved satisfactorily in a way that isn't fully generalizable