Hi,

being somehow interested in computer oriented music, here is what I
found yesterday on a forum (Reaktor is a kind of programmable virtual
synthesizer pretty hard to learn):

"Reaktor is EXTREMELY HARD to program well, and I've never read a
tutorial that covers the topic adequately. Coming from a strong
programming background, I can tell you that Reaktor is the most
challenging environment I've ever worked in... Actually, it might be a
close second to TeX (Donald Knuth's mind bending typesetting macro
language), though Reaktor took me longer to learn. The learning curve
is enormous and stretches for years. Reaktor is simple on the surface,
but incredibly deep when you start digging around, and experimenting
with different building techniques. It's sublime." (http://
www.em411.com/forum/8153/1//NI_Reaktor_versus_MAXDSP.html)


I just thought that the comparison was funny.

pluton

On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:35:04 -0800 (PST), pluton
<plutonesque@gmail.com> wrote:

> it might be a close second to TeX (Donald Knuth's mind bending 
>typesetting macro language)

I have a pretty hard time just with LaTeX! Haven't even tried delving
into the depths of TeX. It reminds me of some site where you can test
your firewall, written by a computer programmer who makes a big deal
out of how great it is to write applications in assembler. They do say
a genius is someone who can do easily what others can barely do. Maybe
a corollary to that is someone who thinks *everyone* can do it easily.
:-)

Ian
-- 
http://www.bookstacks.org/

Ian Rastall <rastallian@gmail.com> writes:

> On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:35:04 -0800 (PST), pluton
> <plutonesque@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> it might be a close second to TeX (Donald Knuth's mind bending 
>>typesetting macro language)
>
> I have a pretty hard time just with LaTeX! Haven't even tried delving
> into the depths of TeX. It reminds me of some site where you can test
> your firewall, written by a computer programmer who makes a big deal
> out of how great it is to write applications in assembler. They do say
> a genius is someone who can do easily what others can barely do.

The genius is the one who can write applications in assembler (or any
language) that others find easy to understand.

One of the most educating programs I had the pleasure to peruse was a
Reversi program written in Z80 assembly language.  Very strong playing
power.  But I had only the binaries available.

I was not just able to disassemble it, but also _understand_ it.  It was
more or less straight alpha/beta pruning taken from the book, with
recognizable scoring tables (slightly modified after corner occupation),
arrangements, stacks and so on.  Everything done no-nonsense,
straightforwardly and to the point.  Probably something like 3kB
including user interface.

-- 
David Kastrup
UKTUG FAQ: <URL:http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html>