Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 14:13:41 05/27/99
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On May 27, 1999 at 15:51:59, Prakash Das wrote: >Well, I still don't understand the point of this "world championship" then. Sure >, you can call it "hey, if nothing it will be fun", a "test of systems", etc. >But what are exactly is this exercise trying to prove? If program A on hardware >B, beats program D on hardware E - does that say much about A compared to B? >This belies the principles of science - you have to have a uniform platform >for all participants to make any kind of judgement. > > Someone said it is a test of "systems". Everything is a system - a >philosophical concept to a microwave oven to a method of planting trees. >Why call this a world championship at all .. why not simply, some kind of >"fair"? I mean, to draw scietific conclusions on such a basis is impractical. > > There is no doubt that the latest programs will all do well given their owners >will land up with super hardware. Hey, what a surprise! And invariably the >programs that look bad are either the older ones, or the ones whose owners >could/would not bring the best hardware. > > Considering that the results of this "world championship" will be used for >marketing purposes, perhaps the organizers should have made it obligatory on >each particpant to print some kind of following statement in case of a marketing >advertisement: > > "This championship had participants using their own hardware. Because of the >non-uniform nature of the hardware.. etc.. the results cannot be used to draw >wide conclusions." > > Yes, there is nothing wrong in having fun, but don't call it a world >championship. Equality in the name of science I demand :) I return from my self-imposed absence for a brief argument. The WCCC is an unlimited event. There is no economic leveling. There is no lowest common denominator hardware mandate. It is not meant to be a test only of programmer talent. If that were the case, I could find fault with almost every team, since many of them have more than one programmer, which is unfair since I wrote mine myself, and how fair is it that I am outnumbered N to one? I make no such complaint, of course. If this event becomes a limited event, then what is the point of developing on any machine that isn't a single processor Intel machine running Windows '98? What is the point of developing for anything else if there is literally nowhere to compete? If the ICCA wants to organize a uniform platform event and hold it every once in a while, I will show up (with enthusiasm) same as I show up at every other ICCA event. But this is the WCCC. It's once every three years, it's absolutely wide open, I'm going to show up with something nasty, and there will be no whining from me if someone shows up with something nastier. This is the whole point of the event. bruce
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