From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.2 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, LOTS_OF_MONEY,REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 10a146,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gid10a146,public X-Google-Thread: fac41,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1094ba,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gid1094ba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: fa0ae,a03ae7f4e53958e1 X-Google-Attributes: gidfa0ae,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,8775b19e3c68a5dc X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: fred@genesis.demon.co.uk (Lawrence Kirby) Subject: Re: Which language pays most? Smalltalk, not C++ nor Java. Date: 1998/01/03 Message-ID: <883859370snz@genesis.demon.co.uk>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 312509639 References: <199712121931.LAA25389@sirius.infonex.com> <67iipp$ktj$1@darla.visi.com> <882756127snz@genesis.demon.co.uk> <34A14C27.57C0@min.net> <67rjb3$pfb$1@brie.direct.ca> <34A50CAA.54AA@netup.cl> <34A7B45C.403B@min.net> <01bd147e$11496760$6a28b4cf@carla.ici.net> X-Mail2News-User: fred@genesis.demon.co.uk X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net X-Mail2News-Path: genesis.demon.co.uk X-Trace: mail2news.demon.co.uk 883865991 22354 fred genesis.demon.co.uk Organization: none Reply-To: fred@genesis.demon.co.uk Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.ada,comp.edu Date: 1998-01-03T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <01bd147e$11496760$6a28b4cf@carla.ici.net> carla@ici.net "Alicia Carla Longstreet" writes: >John Porter wrote: >: Robert Dewar wrote: >: > OK, so your compiler can compile memfoo without compiling. Wunderbar! >But >: > that does NOT mean that you can actually go ahead and call a routine >memfoo >: > if the standard forbids it. To do so would be incompetent programming. > >: So now a "language" is not defined by the compiler -- or even by the >: preprocessor+compiler+linker+etc, as some have it... >: I am forbidden by a piece of paper from calling a function 'memfoo'! > >No the language is *not* defined by any single compiler, neither is it >defined by any piece of paper. A language is defined by usage. A >combination of compilers and the standard. If you are saying that a piece of paper cannot define a language then you are very, very wrong. If it can then it is perfectly reasonable to say that the ISO standard document defines a language. It certainly claims to define the C language and I can find no reason not to believe it (and I have questioned many things in it). >The ISO Standard defines the core of the language. Thet's true. Where you go wrong is then saying that the C language is some nebulous thing that is much larger than that. > Any C compiler *must* >support this common core, but it may also support various extensions to >support the specifics of its platform. That is true. > Just like the English language is >not 'defined' by any single dictionary, rather the dictionary is a >'snapshot' of the language (or part of the language) at a particular point >in time. You are trying to apply the attributes of a natural language to a technical language. Technical languages have precise definitions and that is simply not a valid thing to do. >Similarly the ANSI/ISO Standard is a snapshot of the common core of the C >language. The language itself continues to grow and evolve. That was true up until standardisation. Since standardisation the language evolves as the standard evolves. That's why standardisation is such a significant point in a languages evolution. > Actually C9X >recognizes this but preparing a new 'snapshot' of the language (or at least >the core). C9X recognises that the C language needs to evolve and is the vehicle for that evolution. -- ----------------------------------------- Lawrence Kirby | fred@genesis.demon.co.uk Wilts, England | 70734.126@compuserve.com -----------------------------------------