On 2012-04-03, Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 12:26 AM, Mark Lawrence <breamore...@yahoo.co.uk> > wrote: >> On 03/04/2012 14:51, rusi wrote: >>> Doing programming without programming languages is like using toenails >>> to tighten screws >> >> >> The latter is extremely difficult if you bite your toenails :) > > I agree, thumbnails are far better suited. Mine are often pushed into > that service. But to extend the analogy: Using a thumbnail to tighten > a screw is like directly patching a binary to fix a bug. It works, but > it's not exactly a practical way to build a system.
Anybody remember DEC's VAX/VMS "patch" utility? Apparently, DEC thought it was a practical way to fix things. It had a built-in assembler and let you "insert" new code into a function by auto-allocating a location for the new code an hooking it into the indicated spot with jump instructions. The mind wobbled. -- Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! I'm a fuschia bowling at ball somewhere in Brittany gmail.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list