Holiday Cheer ??

Holiday Cheer ??

[Judy.Bamberger]

   -- A standard preprocessor would have the advantage of being standardized,
   -- but would suffer the disadvantage that compiler optimizations are not
   -- possible where the compiler has no knowledge of high-level semantics,
   -- which is a major reason not to simply codify the preprocessing practice. 

With a few substitions and a bit o' poetic license, the above could be
rephrased as:

   A standard LANGUAGE would have the advantage of being standardized,
   but would suffer the disadvantage that APPLICATION-SPECIFIC 
   IDIOMS are not possible where the LANGUAGE has no knowledge of 
   APPLICATION-level semantics, which is a major reason not to simply 
   codify the PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE.

Just somethin' to keep in mind when discussing the (de)merits of any
programming language, its features, or the abstractions it provides.

Submitted most respectfully.

Re: Substitutions

[William Thomas Wolfe, 2847]

From Judy.Bamberger@sei.cmu.edu:
> -- A standard preprocessor would have the advantage of being standardized,
> -- but would suffer the disadvantage that compiler optimizations are not
> -- possible where the compiler has no knowledge of high-level semantics,
> -- which is a major reason not to simply codify the preprocessing practice. 
> 
% With a few substitions and a bit o' poetic license, the above could be
% rephrased as:
% 
%    A standard LANGUAGE would have the advantage of being standardized,
%    but would suffer the disadvantage that APPLICATION-SPECIFIC 
%    IDIOMS are not possible where the LANGUAGE has no knowledge of 
%    APPLICATION-level semantics, which is a major reason not to simply 
%    codify the PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE.

   The analogy is fundamentally flawed; while the first passage notes
   problems with one strategy and suggests another, the second states 
   in essence that since a standardized computer programming language
   is more rigorous than a human language, computer programming languages
   should not be standardized, which of course does not follow.

   Perhaps the spiked eggnog is being passed around a bit too early... 


   Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu