The imp of the perverse

[Alain Farmer]

Hello,
 
> I forgot 1 thing : according to Konrad Lorenz
> works, AFAIR a baby goose (not sure it's been
> proven for ducks as well) bonds to whatever
> MOVING thing is the first it sees.

Goose instead of duck, and first *moving* object
instead of just the first object. Okay. Fair enough. I
was a bit inaccurate, but happily my main point about
'imprinting' was clearly grasped despite my inability
to remember the term. A qualified success!

> I'm not sure if this concept called "imprint"
> can be extended to learning of programming
> languages...

OTC, it does apply. The responses to my post about
this unanimously confirmed this 'hypothesis' of mine.
I did not invent it actually. Many folks have
expressed this, verbally as well as in writing. It's
part of the lore of computing culture. Notice btw that
I have switched from "programming" to "computing",
implying that imprinting also applies to what OS we
prefer to use. Die-hard Win fans don't spontaneously
favour Mac even though the Mac is 'arguably' better,
for example.

> I agree, this is way OT, but anyway, jumping
> from one concept to another just like that is
> not recommended...

I am not a biologist, or anything like that, so I am
sorry if my *ANALOGY* to imprinting [among geese] has
somehow ruffled a few feathers. My point is that
humans tend to favour the *first*
platform/language/etc that they become familiar with.
Switching to something else which is UN-familiar tends
therefore to be resisted by most of us.

Sorry for the OT everyone,

Alain

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com