StuFeldman invented the
MakeProgram in 1979. If you have read
GraphTheory, his algorithm solves ALL
DirectedAcyclicGraph problems. All of them. The trick is to accurately describe the graph.
Once you start writing Makefile
s and reading those of others, you find that the computer is learning from you and teaching you at the same time.
It has been said that Stu's
make is the first great stride in
ArtificialIntelligence with software. Are there other strides?
Who said that? Lots of us have done strange and wonderous things with make, but I don't offhand recall any interesting AI uses to date, even if it is theoretically possibly to do something along those lines.