Chapter X: Levels of Description and Computer Systems

[Erik]

I was excited to see this chapter title. I am enjoying this book very much, but I have been looking forward to references to Software Engineering related topics in a more direct way.

This chapter shows its age when it discusses Algol, Lisp, and Assembly vs Machine code. I found this interesting, but I think many readers today would have a hard time relating.

I liked the "chunking" idea. I'm not sure if Tony Robins reused this idea or not. Tony Robins has a thing where he talks about staying motivated by "chunking" tasks. It goes like this: If you think about all the little baby-steps you have to take to go to the gym, you'll never get there: Get keys, pack a bag, walk to the garage, open car door, put key in ignition, etc... - "Chunk" the tasks: Drive to the gym, Work out, Done!

One of our previous books, "Masterminds of Programming", made me think a lot about syntax and interpreters. This chapter touches on that a little bit.

I liked the section on bootstrapping. Databases always make me think about bootstrapping. "How does a database stored system tables? What is the schema for holding a schema?" - These are questions that give me Zen-like moments.

The Super-Flexible versus Super-Rigid section was a nice look back at what "declarative languages" (Google searches, etc...) would have been in 1980. It's also a nice description for anyone not familiar with these topics.

Around the section called "The trade-off between chunking...", I started to think this chapter was getting a little bit long and in the weeds. Then I noticed some self reference in the way the sections of this chapter are "chunked".