My thoughts on "Pattern on the Stone"

 While reading the book "Pattern on the stone", I was very engaged and interested. This level of computing has always interested me. There were parts where I felt like it was rambling on, but that could’ve been because I was hungry and those were few and far between. For being a book about technical things, it keeps your interest while learning at the same time. I found quite a few interesting things, but the most interesting thing I learned in this  book was about recursion. I had seen this video (2)
I didn’t really understand it until I read this book. The book describes this "This kind of recursive definition with a changing parameter is useful for producing anything with a self-similar structure. A picture that contains a picture of itself is an example of a recursive, self similar structure."(4) That brings my mind back to the home depot buckets (take a look at the bucket that the guy is holding).

(3)

Both seem like very powerful tools that are used to day in many contexts. Another thing I actually looked up after reading this chapter was heuristics. I found out that the use of heuristics is actually applied a lot, especially in cases where using a brute force method would just take way to long or way too many resources to calculate like the game of Go or Chess. I found that for chess programs, they usually use “rules of thumb.” On my searching online, I found a strategy that from a chess programming site.

“Steinitz's Four Rules of Strategy

Wilhelm Steinitz , the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894, was a main chess correspondent to present his ideas about chess strategy [5] :

1.       The right to attack belongs to the side that has a positional advantage, which not only has the right to attack, but the obligation to do so, else the advantage will evaporate. The attack should be concentrated on the weakest square in the opponent's position.

2.       If in an inferior position, the defender should be ready to defend and make compromises, or take other measures, such as a desperate counterattack.

3.       In an equal position, the opponents should maneuver, trying to achieve a position in which they have an advantage. If both sides play correctly, an equal position will remain equal.

4.       The advantage may be a big, indivisible one, or it may be a whole series of small advantages. The goal of the stronger side is to store up the advantages, and then to convert temporary advantages into permanent ones.” (1)

Just by following these simple guidelines, you can get pretty far in chess. As it says, he was a chess champion from 1886 to 1894. So, these probably have good grounding.

If there was something I would have changed about the book is the depth of it. Sometimes I wish it went a little deeper into the subject. But then again, the aim of this book was toward people who have a limited knowledge of computers or computation on this level. One might ask if I learned anything reading this book. I already felt that I knew this level of computation, but I had never really thought of the concept of heuristics and recursion as explained above. Those definitely were helpful and very insightful as I scoured through the book. It was nice that the book didn’t leave me hanging or feeling unsatisfied with questions. It actually made me more inspired to continue. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants to know more about computers. It’s a great step into the lower level world of how computation works that is more timeless, because the concepts still apply today. He says himself in the preface

"This is the book I wish I had read when I first started learning about the field of computing. Unlike most books on computers - which are either about how to use them or about the technology out of which they're built... this book is about ideas. It explains, or at least introduces, most of the important ideas in the field of computer science" (4)

The book has great significance to transitioning the line between no underlying knowledge on how computers work and fundamentally knowing how computers work on a lower level without getting into specific code. I think it was chosen as a textbook for my computer science class because of this fact. The books concepts are grounding on the base level that doesn’t get outdated.

Bibliography

1. GerdIsenberg. "Strategy." Chess Programming Wikispaces. N.p., 16 Mar. 2016. Web. 30 Sept. 2016. <https://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Strategy>.

2. Computerphile. "What on Earth Is Recursion?" YouTube. N.p., 16 May 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2016. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv9NEXX1VHc>.

3. "The Home Depot 5-gal. Homer Bucket." The Home Depot. N.p., 16 Aug. 2016. Web. 30 Sept. 2016. <http://www.homedepot.com/p/The-Home-Depot-5-gal-Homer-Bucket-05GLHD2/100087613>.

4. Hillis, W. Daniel. The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work. New York: Basic, 1998. VIII, 47. Print.