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=0.7 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_RANDY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e61c8636ef35379d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-01-21 07:50:08 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!news.gv.tsc.tdk.com!falcon.america.net!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!newsfeed.mathworks.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail From: Robert Dewar Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Examples in Docs, was Re: Escape Sequences in Strings Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 15:35:37 GMT Organization: Deja.com Message-ID: <94evk9$j26$1@nnrp1.deja.com> References: <93objj$guk$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <93q77h$rr6$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <940f9j$nj2$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <940n0u$tnf$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <942brr$b0t$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <942vqr$sd0$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <945oq2$81c$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <947hj1$o1r$1@nnrp1.deja.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.232.38.14 X-Article-Creation-Date: Sun Jan 21 15:35:37 2001 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.61 [en] (OS/2; U) X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x63.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.232.38.14 X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDrobert_dewar Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:4258 Date: 2001-01-21T15:35:37+00:00 List-Id: In article , Dale Stanbrough wrote: > It's interesting to note that English law, and countries that > have inherited this model, rely on case law to nail down the > semantics of the laws that are made via examples. Still, I > suppose we shouldn't hold our breath waiting for a full > mathematical notation of the next taxation law semantics :-). Indeed the use of examples (case law) to nail down lack of clarity in the statutes is a pretty good example of what we want to avoid when it comes to programming languages. It is one thing to find out that the law is interpreted differently in the second and fourth circuits, and quite another to find that two different compilers for language XXX do different things based on different local interpretations and examples! Actually there *has* been one attempt to formalize a law. As an excercise in the use of Prolog, the revised citizenship law in England which embodied changes pushed by the Thatcher government (*) was complex and was encoded as a set of Prolog rules implementing the predicate Is_Citizen and related predicates from the law. This excercise actually caught some internal inconsistencies which were revised before the law became final. (*) Non-technical note: These changes included the rather amazing change that for the first time in recent times makes a difference between men and women when it comes to passing on citizenship. English men pass citizenship to their children, English women do not always do so if they are married to aliens. Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/