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Re: Regularity: a fundamental property of declarative

• From: Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev@gmail.com>
• To: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
• Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2019 11:23:10 -0800

For example, here is a declarative (compact and elegant) XSLT solution
to the problem "Find the biggest prime factor of a natural number N":

https://stackoverflow.com/a/445858/36305

If we have a declarative solution to a problem, does it mean the
problem's data is regular?

In this case the problem's data is the set of prime numbers. To me
prime numbers seem to be quite not regular -- otherwise we wouldn't
need enormous effort to discover every next "biggest-known" prime
number.

Just my 2c.

Cheers,
Dimitre


On Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 11:00 AM Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Roger,
>
> It would not be correct to reason about this without a definition of
> "regular" and "irregular"
>
> Cheers,
> Dimitre
>
> On Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 10:52 AM Costello, Roger L. <costello@mitre.org> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Folks,
> >
> > What are the properties of “declarative”?
> >
> > Here’s one.
> >
> > Assertion #1: A key feature of declarative data is the ability of readers (both human readers and machine readers) to recognize, at a glance, the shape/topology of the data.
> >
> > Assertion #2: Regularity gives data a visible/parse-able shape and therefore regularity is a fundamental property of declarative.
> >
> > Assertion #3: Declarative is superior. Always choose declarative.
> >
> > Conclusion: Choose regular data over irregular data.
> >
> > Below is an example of regular XML-encoded data followed by an example of irregular XML-encoded data. The first is declarative and superior. Choose the former over the latter.
> >
> > Do you agree with my assertions, conclusion, and examples?
> >
> > /Roger
> >
> > Regular Data (declarative, preferred)
> >
> >
> > <People>
> >     <Person>
> >         <Name>John</Name>
> >         <Residence>Massachusetts</Residence>
> >     </Person>
> >     <Person>
> >         <Name>Sara</Name>
> >         <Residence>Illinois</Residence>
> >     </Person>
> >     <Person>
> >         <Name>Bill</Name>
> >         <Residence>California</Residence>
> >     </Person>
> >     <Person>
> >         <Name>Lisa</Name>
> >         <Residence>New Mexico</Residence>
> >     </Person>
> > </People>
> >
> > Irregular Data (inferior, avoid)
> >
> >
> > <People>
> >     <Massachusetts>
> >         <Person>
> >             <Name>John</Name>
> >         </Person>
> >     </Massachusetts>
> >     <Person>
> >         <Name>Sara</Name>
> >         <Residence>Illinois</Residence>
> >     </Person>
> >     <Resident-of-California>
> >         <Person>
> >             <Name>Bill</Name>
> >         </Person>
> >     </ Resident-of-California>
> >     <New-Mexico>
> >         <Person>
> >             <Name>Lisa</Name>
> >         </Person>
> >     </New-Mexico>
> > </People>
> >
> >

• References:
  • Regularity: a fundamental property of declarative
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
  • Re: Regularity: a fundamental property of declarative
    • From: Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev@gmail.com>