deralin@pawl.rpi.edu (Gregory A Kohlenbe) (12/06/90)
I recently took part in a discusion about the nature of programing languages and how they are viewed in society. We were primarily concerned with the different ways of viewing what a computer program is, and based on this, how a programer could get legal protection in the form of a patent or a copywrite, depending on whether a program in viewed as aprocess or as a description of methods/ideas. What caught my attention was someone sayiong that the way we decide to view a program (as a machine part or as an experssion of ideas) will determine the future attitude towards programming. if a program is just a machine part, the computer is just a machione. But if a program is though of as a "language" it will further the drive for developing computer systems that imitate thought. Will it make a significant difference?