Talk:David Wheeler (computer scientist)

indirection quote: layer or level?

Wheeler is often quoted as saying "Any problem in computer science can be solved with another layer of indirection. But that usually will create another problem."

In his Turing Award lecture at [1] Butler Lampson attributes the quote to Wheeler using the word "level":

Any problem in computer science can be solved with another level of
indirection.  (Wheeler).

But the "layer" term is also often seen. Is there a good citation for it? Or should we change the quote? --NealMcB (talk) 06:52, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't have a good citation. I chatted with David about this quote a few weeks before his death and I think he used the word "layer" then. But I don't think he would have considered minor stylistic differences such as whether the word "layer" or "level" is used significant in this context, and it is well possible that he has said both in the past. He did however stress that he considered the inclusion of the – often omitted – second part "But that usually creates another problem." as significant. It is more the spirit that counts than the exact wording. Markus Kuhn (talk) 13:08, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Can there be a mathematical proof that any problem in CS can be solved with another level of indirection? Thanks, --Abdull (talk) 11:48, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Strictly speaking, no (of course). But for an informal illustration, consider the (central) role of variables in lambda-calculus, and that each variable binding is an extra level of indirection.—141.150.23.3 (talk) 01:14, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on David Wheeler (British computer scientist). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150628022047/http://www.laputan.org:80/pub/papers/wheeler to http://www.laputan.org/pub/papers/wheeler

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 14:54, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on David Wheeler (British computer scientist). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150403185912/http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/David,Wheeler/ to http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/David,Wheeler/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 21:38, 29 November 2017 (UTC)