Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming (2018)

Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programmi... by impendia on Wednesday April 22, 2020 @09:35AM (#22945359)

I remember, when I was a kid, that I had a toy piano where the notes C, D, E, etc. were labeled 1, 2, 3, etc.

Later, I tried to get a computer to play a simple melody and assumed that 1=A, 2=B, etc. The result sounded wrong, and eventually by trial and error I figured out that if I put C# in place of C, then everything sounded good.

I asked my father why, and he gave me a version of "you'll understand when you're older". My father was a wonderful man, but this is still one of my sadder memories from childhood.

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programmi... by darkerside on Wednesday April 22, 2020 @10:10AM (#22945726)

You may have asked him at the worst possible time for him personally. Whyever he didn't explain it at the time, I'm sure it's nothing to do with his love for you.

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programmi... by impendia on Wednesday April 22, 2020 @10:43AM (#22946068)

Oh, no question about that. When I was a kid, I tended to assume that my parents always were available to drop what they're doing and engage with you.

(And which, incidentally, is surely a reason why many parents are finding working from home during quarantine to be so difficult.)

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programmi... by gowld on Wednesday April 22, 2020 @03:45PM (#22949435)

Your question may have touched a nerve, if he was getting older and no longer could see sharp.

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programmi... by heretoo on Wednesday April 22, 2020 @05:54PM (#22950593)

Or he just wanted to be flat on the couch, without being disturbed.

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programmi... by Hermandw on Thursday April 23, 2020 @02:58AM (#22953490)

Maybe he was like me who had some degree of hearing loss when I grew older and could no longer hear C sharp.

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programmi... by sullyj3 on Thursday April 23, 2020 @03:12AM (#22953555)

musical notes repeat once every doubling of frequencies, so there are many C#s spread throughout the range of human hearing. The only way someone could be unable to hear c# would be if they were unable to hear at all.

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programmi... by Naracion on Thursday April 23, 2020 @05:25AM (#22954173)

Your parent and grandparent comments were (imo, clever) word plays on C# / see sharp and back to _hear_ c# (instead of see sharp).

Edit: Point being--scientific accuracy not required. :)

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programmi... by sullyj3 on Saturday April 25, 2020 @05:14AM (#22976801)

oops!

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