From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: Two simple language questions (plural types)
Date: 1998/01/10
Date: 1998-01-10T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <dewar.884450142@merv> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 697p89$b5j@top.mitre.org
Michael said
<<Almost every type reads better when declared to be plural. Those things
that are singletons are declared in a manner where the OBJECT is SINGULAR,
and the TYPE is PLURAL, such as:
color: colors; -- to be read as: color is of type colors
>>
This is of course purely a matter of taste despite Michael's apparent
intention to put the argument on objective grounds.
For my tastes, I find the use of plurals to be highly (almost deliberately)
confusing.
Here the variable color is said to be something to do with colors, which
to me strongly implies that it is a set of colors or somesuch.
Yes, I see how people could get used to the (to me rather odd) convention
that the intention was always to understand that
x : nodes;
means that x takes on one of many possible values of nodes, but I still
don't like it, and it is certainly a convention that we neither encourage
not even permit in the GNAT project. A plural there always means that
there is some kind of collective structure.
x : node;
one node
x : nodes;
some kind of collection of nodes
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1998-01-10 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 39+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1998-01-07 0:00 Two simple language questions Chip Richards
1998-01-07 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-10 0:00 ` Two simple language questions (plural types) Michael F Brenner
1998-01-10 0:00 ` Robert Dewar [this message]
1998-01-10 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-10 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Anonymous
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-13 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-13 0:00 ` Distinguishing type names from other identifiers Nick Roberts
1998-01-13 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-14 0:00 ` Stephen Leake
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-15 0:00 ` Anonymous
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Pred Nick Roberts
1998-01-25 0:00 ` Distinguishing type names from other identifiers Matthew Heaney
1998-01-15 0:00 ` Aaro Koskinen
1998-01-17 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-17 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-25 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-25 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
[not found] ` <n5rs5FAStOz0Ew2+@dowie-cs.demon.co.uk>
1998-01-26 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-27 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-27 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-27 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-29 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-30 0:00 ` Mats Weber
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-11 0:00 ` Two simple language questions (plural types) Brian Rogoff
1998-01-07 0:00 ` Two simple language questions Robert Dewar
1998-01-07 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1998-01-07 0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
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