From: John Volan <johnv@ac3i.dseg.ti.com>
Subject: Re: Ultimate Language feature list
Date: 1998/05/20
Date: 1998-05-20T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <35633C13.D359B8CB@ac3i.dseg.ti.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 355C28EA.F5BAC661@praxis-cs.co.uk
Stephen Bull wrote:
>
> Chris Miller wrote:
>
> > I always understood that the "ultimate" language was, by
> > definition, an
> > interpreter for the English language !.
> >
>
> Ugh! I hope this was not a serious suggestion: natural language
> is far too ambiguous to be a useful implementation language.
Indeed, as has been proven in any number of cautionary tales involving
genies-in-a-bottle and magic wishes. What comes to mind is a fantasy
short story of recent years (can't remember the title or author) in
which a well-meaning but fatally tongue-tied protagonist attempted to
resolve all human conflict but instead unleashed a world-wide ecological
disaster by uttering the fateful words:
"Let there be pease on earth."
At which point the porridge rains began... :-)
--
Signature volanSignature =
new Signature
( /*name: */ "John G. Volan",
/*employer: */ "Raytheon Advanced C3I Systems, San Jose",
/*workEmail: */ "johnv@ac3i.dseg.ti.com",
/*homeEmail: */ "johnvolan@sprintmail.com",
/*selfPlug: */ "Sun Certified Java Programmer",
/*twoCents: */ "Java would be even cooler with Ada95's " +
"generics, enumerated types, function types, " +
"named parameter passing, etc...",
/*disclaimer:*/ "These views not packaged in COM.ti.dseg.ac3i, " +
"so loading them throws DontQuoteMeError. :-)" );
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1998-05-20 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 22+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1998-05-13 0:00 Ultimate Language feature list MSG
1998-05-13 0:00 ` Mark K. Gardner
1998-05-15 0:00 ` Jussi Santti
1998-05-13 0:00 ` John McCabe
1998-05-13 0:00 ` Charles Hixson
1998-05-14 0:00 ` Eugene Mayevski
1998-05-14 0:00 ` Mats Weber
1998-05-15 0:00 ` Nick Leaton
1998-05-15 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1998-05-16 0:00 ` Tarjei T. Jensen
1998-05-15 0:00 ` Fergus Henderson
1998-05-15 0:00 ` Chris Miller
1998-05-15 0:00 ` Franck Arnaud
1998-05-15 0:00 ` Stephen Bull
1998-05-20 0:00 ` John Volan [this message]
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1998-05-13 0:00 adam
1998-05-14 0:00 ` Rainer Joswig
1998-05-14 0:00 ` John English
1998-05-14 0:00 ` Michael F Brenner
1998-05-14 0:00 ` John McCabe
1998-05-14 0:00 ` Charles Hixson
1998-05-15 0:00 ` Fergus Henderson
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