Re: The annotated annotated annotated C standard


The problem with this metaphor was that the "rigor" of Lord Russell's
Principia Mathematica turned out to be a complete dead end and a
complete waste of ink, perhaps as will the C standard.
<<

Not at all. Some of Hilberts 22 problems have been solved in that time.
Even explorations that proved incorrect have not been a waste of time, in
some cases we understand Mathematics better. It was not entirely fruitless
period until Godel appeared.

We would not have Lobachevskian Geometry if Lobachevsky had not tried to
prove that the 5th axiom of Euclidean - the parallel postulate was a theorem
of the other 4 axioms by assuming that there were 2+ parallel lines and then
getting reduction ad absurdum proof.
Instead a brand new geometry was discovered.

Stephen Howe


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