Re: What is the origin of `pragma'

[billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe,2847,)]

From article <15907@vail.ICO.ISC.COM>, by rcd@ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn):
>> >>    Why was the word `pragma' selected?
>> > ALGOL 68 has a construct called a "pragmat" with very similar usage. 
>>     Nevertheless, it's not a very intuitively appealing keyword;
>>     most people learning Ada don't say "Ah, yes, from the Latin..."
>>     (or whatever)... rather, it's a counter-intuitive thing to be
>>     memorized.
> 
> What is counter-intuitive?  At most it's non-intuitive to someone who
> doesn't know the word, but certainly a remark directed to the compiler,
> concerning not some abstract matter, but a concrete, practical point,
> is a "pragmatic remark."  Seems intuitive to me.

    But not to people first learning the language!!

    You can verify this by giving this test to non-Ada programmers:

    ----------------------------------------------------------
    The following is a list of keywords in one or more unknown 
    programming languages.  Please write down your best guess
    as to the purpose of each keyword listed.

       1) pragma

       2) Compiler:

    ----------------------------------------------------------

    The responses will be, respectively,

       1) Don't know.

       2) This looks like a compiler directive.

    ----------------------------------------------------------

    Programming languages would come much more naturally if this
    sort of testing for user-friendliness were performed more often.

    Overall, Ada did a fine job of selecting user-friendly keywords, 
    but pragma is a case in which it just didn't happen.  Closer
    attention to this factor would reduce psychological barriers to
    learning Ada, thus promoting its widespread use and acceptance.  


    Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu