Re: LOGO-L> Shuffling words & Word Games

[mikedoyle@cix.compulink.co.uk (Mike Doyle)]

In-Reply-To: <285D1E56F3@ort.spb.ru>
Thanks for the reminder about English Olga - we English/Irish are very bad 
at languages! Your English, on the other hand, is excellent - my Russian 
does not exist!

My interest is in the new mental models we will need as we come to use the 
computer as our normal (regular) representation medium. This means looking 
very critically at legacy representation systems - those transfered from 
pen and paper media.

You point out that it is easy to work in two dimensions with an array. We 
can even imagine a three dimensional array. However, as you say, our three 
dimensional minds cannot conceive n-dimensional arrays. 

We can, however, think of multiple characteristics. When I look at my 
garden I can list the flowers in it. When I look at my neighbour's garden 
I can list the flowers in hers'. I can do the same for the whole of my 
street. When I have my list of lists I can then ask of it whether the same 
flowers grow in different gardens, etc. 

This mental model of lists of lists copes well with data for which, using 
paper, we found arrays convenient. The great thing about lists of lists is 
that they are not constrained to be symetrical. Lists of lists are a far 
more general concept, of which the array is a special case. 

The great thing about the computer is that it enables us to deal with 
complex patterns of data that we had difficulty handling using pen and 
paper techniques.

I hope this makes sense and that my English is not too dense.

Micheal O Duill

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