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Date: 17 Dec 92 17:24:36 GMT
From: seas.gwu.edu!mfeldman@uunet.uu.net  (Michael Feldman)
Subject: Re: Why HOL?
Message-ID: <1992Dec17.172436.17195@seas.gwu.edu>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <5sqwVB1w165w@netlink.cts.com> mshapiro@netlink.cts.com (Michael Sha
piro) writes:
>Why is Ada called a "High Order Language" (HOL) instead of a
>"High Level Language" (HLL) like nearly every other language
>I've seen described?
>
[stuff deleted]
>
>"Because they thought they were inventing something new with Ada and
>didn't want to use anyone else's jargon."

Computer people are too cynical. This dichotomy of jargon has been around
as far back as I can remember, which is my junior year in college (1964).
I think it's as simple as the fact that government folks and the rest of
us didn't speak to each other all that much, and each community went its
own way. 

The government (not just DoD, if I recall), used to refer to ADP for
Automatic Data Processing, while the rest of the world referred to
EDP for Electronic Data Processing, and HOL where the rest of us
would say HLL. As an example, the original study group (1973, if I recall)
whose work resulted in Ada was called HOLWG for High-Order Language Working
Group. The use of HOL was simply standard terminology for DoD, and
had zero to do with the new language they ended up inventing. Fortran
and JOVIAL were (still are) also HOL's.

As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no reason for the dichotomy;
it's just two different dialects of American techno-speak.

My first trip to Boston was in 1961. We stopped at a diner and I 
ordered a milkshake. I got milk with chocolate syrup. What I wanted
was a nice thick thing with ice cream in it, which we Philadelphians
call a milkshake. In Boston that was called a frappe.

Why do the Brits call a windshield a windscreen? Why is Pepsi an
instance of the class "soda" in the East but "pop" in the West.

It's futile to look, after the fact, for rationales of things that are
just accidents.

After this diatribe, I promise to eat lots of crow if one of my DoD
friends writes back to explain that there really _was_ a reason :-)

Mike Feldman