Computational Expressiveness News Today

Why are some programmers fascinated by model railroading? A mechanical technology from the 19th century has somehow remained a powerful totem in the culture of programmers throughout the decades. Several have noted the resemblance of miniature model train layouts to a programmable system, delighting once more in the fact that no matter how far we’ve come, our modern insights can still mingle with our memories of mighty engines from long ago. Even as the world of model trains, like programming...

Update (April 5, 2021): So it turns out that Adam Chalcraft and Michael Greene already proved the essential result of this post back in 1994 (hat tip to commenter Dylan). Not terribly surprising in retrospect! My son Daniel had his fourth birthday a couple weeks ago. For a present, he got an electric train set. (For completeness—and since the details of the train set will be rather important to the post—it’s called “WESPREX Create a Dinosaur Track”, but this is not an ad and I’m ...