latin-dictionary | Latin language dictionaries | Dictionary library
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kandi X-RAY | latin-dictionary Summary
Latin language dictionaries
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QUESTION
I've never found a clear explanation for the etymology of reflection in the context of computer languages, so I want to clarify this here.
"Reflection" originates from Latin and has the following definitions:
- bend back
- turn back
- turn round
So the idea behind it is a language that is able to bend back on itself, to be able to look and manipulate its own code.
Or is there something else?
Reflection in logic, functional and object-oriented programming: a Short Comparative Study Francois-Nicola Demers and Jacques Malenfant (PDF) seems to agree:
...Reflection is the process of reasoning about and/or acting upon oneself.
ANSWER
Answered 2018-Jun-03 at 09:35The term reflection was (according to the wikipedia article) coined by Brian Cantwell Smith in his dissertation Procedural reflection in programming languages.
The prologue starts
It is a striking fact about human cognition that we can think not only about the world around us, but also about our ideas, our actions, our feelings. our past experience. This ability to reflect lies behind much of the subtlety and flexibility with which we deal with the world; it is an essential part of mastering new skills, of reacting to unexpected circumstances, ...
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This last aspect -- the self-referential aspect of reflective thought -- has sparked particular interest for cognitive theorists...
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In artifial intelligence, the focus on computational forms of self-referential reflective reasoning has become particularly central.
And then it summarises the reflection hypothesis as
In as much as a computational process can be constructed to reason about an external world in virtue of comprising an ingredient process (interpreter) formally manipulating representations of that world, so too a computational process could be made to reason about itself in virtue of comprising an ingredient process (interpreter) formally manipulating representations of its own operations and structures.
The use of reflection is tied to self-representation and self-reference which to me suggests that of the alternatives in the question, the closest is bend back as also given in the etymonline entry on reflection:
Of the mind, from 1670s. Meaning "remark made after turning back one's thought on some subject" is from 1640s. Spelling with -ct- recorded from late 14c., established 18c., by influence of the verb.
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Install latin-dictionary
You can use latin-dictionary like any standard Python library. You will need to make sure that you have a development environment consisting of a Python distribution including header files, a compiler, pip, and git installed. Make sure that your pip, setuptools, and wheel are up to date. When using pip it is generally recommended to install packages in a virtual environment to avoid changes to the system.
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