On Two Views of Computation in Computer Science
I think mathematicians would call this &quot;representation
theory.&quot; This is the whole question of do we
think of a calculation as syntax, or
can we represent this syntax as a &quot;dynamic&quot;, or action;
something that is being moved around or transformed.<p>Some people really are driven to just calculate stuff
(pushing language itself around), and others seem to
want to know &quot;what does it mean?&quot; Ie. what are the
representations of this language.
Logicians call this semantics: it&#x27;s a model for the syntax.<p>I&#x27;m a theoretical physics grad student, and see plenty of this.
Most physicists seem to just want to calculate stuff, and don&#x27;t
care where the symbols &quot;live&quot;.
For me, a calculation is rarely enlightening. I want the context,
the type theory that tells me how the pieces talk to each other.