Re: [boost] Please don't define a fake"operator<"just for ordered containers

From: Paul Giaccone (paulg_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-07-12 07:03:12

>On Tue, Jul 11, 2006 at 10:44:50AM -0700, Sean Parent wrote:
>  
>
>>Mathematicians do not have memory or complexity to deal with  
>>(mathematicians don't sort) - so arguing that the lack of a rule in  
>>mathematics implies that one shouldn't exist in computer science is  
>>vacuous.
>>    
>>

That seems to suggest that computer scientists somehow know better than 
mathematicians about mathematical concepts, which is rather insulting to 
mathematicians. There is a very good reason why the "rule" (actually a 
relation) is absent in mathematics: namely that it cannot be defined in 
a meaningful, useful way, as others have already demonstrated. If it 
can't be done meaningfully in mathematics, it can't be done meaningfully 
in computer science either.

Paul