Challenge to scientists: does your ten-year-old code still run?

Re:Challenge to scientists: does your ten-year-old code stil... by yjftsjthsd-h on Monday August 24, 2020 @01:46PM (#24263242)

> In GIS, there's a saying "the map is not the terrain". It seems like HN is in a little SWE bubble, and needs to understand "the code is not the science".

And if you're a map maker, it's a bit rich to start claiming that the accuracy of your maps is unimportant. If code is "a way to test scientific ideas", then it kinda needs to work if you want meaningful results. Would you run an experiment with thermometers that were accurate to +-30° and reactants from a source known for contamination?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Challenge to scientists: does your ten-year-old code stil... by jnxx on Monday August 24, 2020 @05:53PM (#24265983)

In many parts of scientific research, researchers are, to stay in your metaphor, more travelers using a map, than map makers.

Of course, it is a difference whether you make a clinical study on drugs, and use a pocket calculator to compute a mean, or whether you research in numerical analysis, or are presenting a paper in how to use Coq to more efficiently prove the four-color theorem or Fermat's last theorem.

In short, much of science is not computer science, and for it, computation is just a tool.

[ Parent | on HN ]