Lindsey KuperFeb 26

Old research question: What is a correct emulator?

New research question after thinking about the old research question for a while: Oh god. Oh no. What is an emulator?

Show threadJoshua WiseFeb 26
@lindsey 'What, if anything, is an emulator?'
Show threadLindsey KuperFeb 27
@joshua This, but with "transpiler", is also what you commented on my blog post complaining about the word "transpiler" nine years ago
Show threadJoshua WiseFeb 27
@lindsey The worst part of that is that I did not even get that snowclone from the original "what, if anything, is a parrot", but instead, I got it from @tom7 's classic, https://tom7.org/papers/epsilon.pdf , which must have been relatively fresh in my mind at the time
Show threadchris martensFeb 27
@joshua @tom7 @lindsey this meme has its roots in animal taxonomy! see "what, if anything, is a rabbit" (wood 1957) https://www.jstor.org/stable/2406062?seq=1
Show threadchris martensFeb 27
@joshua @tom7 @lindsey ...wait hang on you did say this but i'm pretty sure it's rabbit and not parrot (i can't find one about parrots)
Show threadchris martensFeb 27
@joshua @tom7 @lindsey okay so i'm now going down a rabbit hole (whatever THAT is) trying to trace who got what from where. i THOUGHT surely tom must have heard of it through bob, via "what, if anything, is a programming paradigm" https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rwh/papers/paradigms/paradigm.pdf but it looks like epsilon predates that by 3 years (epsilon does not cite a predecessor for the title)
Show threadchris martensFeb 27
@joshua @tom7 @lindsey meanwhile, *Bob* cites Jay Gould (1983), "what, if anything, is a zebra." but *Gould* https://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/SJ-Gould-What-if-anything-is-a-zebra.pdf cites Wood (1957), "what, if anything is a rabbit". afaict the chain of allusion stops there
Show threadchris martens
@joshua @tom7 @lindsey https://hci.social/@chrisamaphone/116143737563316480
Feb 27 at 5:20pmWeb
Show threadchris martensFeb 27

@joshua @lindsey

see @tom7 THIS is why it's important to cite your sources, so you can participate in the grand tradition of academic telephone

Show threadTom VII 7thFeb 27
@chrisamaphone @joshua @lindsey yes, definitely from Bob, and the paper I know is the zebra one (pretty cool paper!) Good point on citations, though I’ll also note that when it comes to jokey allusions, the joke is better if you don’t have to explain it! Maybe a “spoilers” bibliography with red overprint so you have to use that red cellophane magnifying glass that comes with The Colonel’s Bequest