From: "Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.not.jrcarter@acm.not.spam.org>
Subject: Re: Avatox 1.0: Trouble with encoding in Windows
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 19:57:20 GMT
Date: 2006-09-17T19:57:20+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <AMhPg.192595$1i1.43649@attbi_s72> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <soQOg.16661$E02.6593@newsb.telia.net>
Bj�rn Persson wrote:
>
> Because it's a bad idea to invent new programming languages all the
> time. It's not only a waste of time to start your project by designing a
> language and writing a compiler; the language would also most likely be
> much worse than some of the existing languages you could have used.
> Having one well-designed language that can be used in all projects is
> much better. (Those were the reasons why Ada was created, as I've
> understood it.) English is � unfortunately � the /lingua franca/ of our
> time, so using English words for keywords is a better choice than using
> German words.
Designing a language for a project is sometimes a good idea. I recall a
report about a class project where there was actual hardware to control
(I think it was a clothes washing machine). When the students tried to
control the hardware directly from the general-purpose language, there
were lots of failures. When they created a problem-specific language,
with statements such as Fill_Tank (Load_Size), Drain_Tank,
Start_Agitation, and so on, success was much more common.
Of course, these statements were really calls to a library, and the
program was really in the general-purpose language.
But I agree that one doesn't want to design and implement a language for
each project. Just for each language. Ada was designed for the US DOD,
an English-speaking organization. Do you think a similar project in
China should have used English reserved words? Or that it would have
been fine for the Green team to have used French reserved words?
--
Jeff Carter
"Run away! Run away!"
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
58
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2006-09-17 19:57 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 50+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2006-09-11 8:24 Avatox 1.0: Trouble with encoding in Windows Manuel Collado
2006-09-11 10:35 ` Georg Bauhaus
2006-09-11 13:49 ` Avatox 1.1: " Manuel Collado
2006-09-11 16:43 ` Georg Bauhaus
2006-09-11 17:50 ` Björn Persson
2006-09-12 0:06 ` Marc A. Criley
2006-09-12 8:35 ` Manuel Collado
2006-09-13 0:01 ` Avatox 1.0: " Randy Brukardt
2006-09-13 9:01 ` Georg Bauhaus
2006-09-13 19:28 ` Björn Persson
2006-09-14 6:34 ` Georg Bauhaus
2006-09-14 23:09 ` Björn Persson
2006-09-14 22:13 ` Björn Persson
2006-09-16 7:40 ` Martin Krischik
2006-09-16 9:43 ` Björn Persson
2006-09-16 9:59 ` Georg Bauhaus
2006-09-16 11:15 ` Björn Persson
2006-09-17 9:30 ` Martin Krischik
2006-09-13 10:32 ` Manuel Collado
2006-09-13 18:28 ` Björn Persson
2006-09-14 8:11 ` Manuel Collado
2006-09-13 23:05 ` Randy Brukardt
2006-09-13 11:04 ` vgodunko
2006-09-14 8:56 ` Martin Krischik
2006-09-14 21:16 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2006-09-14 22:55 ` Björn Persson
2006-09-15 23:15 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2006-09-16 7:38 ` Martin Krischik
2006-09-17 19:41 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2006-09-15 5:47 ` Martin Krischik
2006-09-15 23:16 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2006-09-16 7:31 ` Martin Krischik
2006-09-17 19:43 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2006-09-15 9:41 ` Georg Bauhaus
2006-09-15 23:28 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2006-09-16 9:52 ` Georg Bauhaus
2006-09-16 10:31 ` Björn Persson
2006-09-17 19:57 ` Jeffrey R. Carter [this message]
2006-09-18 0:06 ` Björn Persson
2006-09-18 20:14 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2006-09-16 5:10 ` Simon Wright
2006-09-15 18:11 ` Pascal Obry
2006-09-15 18:53 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2006-09-15 22:29 ` Georg Bauhaus
2006-09-16 7:46 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2006-09-15 23:35 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2006-09-15 5:34 ` Simon Wright
2006-09-12 9:52 ` Stephen Leake
2006-09-19 1:16 ` Marc A. Criley
2006-09-19 9:20 ` Stephen Leake
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