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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILING_LIST_MULTI, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,d14ef72cb8e7209e X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-01-08 13:29:04 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!skynet.be!skynet.be!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!fr.usenet-edu.net!usenet-edu.net!enst.fr!not-for-mail From: "Alexandre E. Kopilovitch" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: incomplete languages Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 00:16:14 +0300 (MSK) Organization: h w c employees, b f Sender: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org Message-ID: Reply-To: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: marvin.enst.fr Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: avanie.enst.fr 1042061343 18836 137.194.161.2 (8 Jan 2003 21:29:03 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@enst.fr NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 21:29:03 +0000 (UTC) Return-Path: X-Mailer: Mail/@ [v2.44 MSDOS] Errors-To: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.13 Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: , List-Id: comp.lang.ada mail<->news gateway List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:32777 Date: 2003-01-09T00:16:14+03:00 "Dmitry A. Kazakov" wrote: > > every language that is rich enough is necessarily incomplete. > >Incomplete for what? Precisely that. I mean that this is the point: if, say, some generic construct corresponds to a general notion that belongs entirely to the problem area (but has various specialization or flavors) then there is no reason to climb into meta-language. But if a generic construct is designed specifically for reuse, then turning to meta-language may be essential for adequate description, because "reuse" itself is surely a meta-notion. > > If a language should be complete for everything, then > > meta language is also no answer, because it in turn will be also > > incomplete. Certainly yes, meta-language will be also incomplete "for everything". But with it the base language may appear complete. For example, the base language may be complete for any particular programming case; assistance of suitable meta-language makes it complete for more general issues (design considerations, program comparison etc.); but further generalizations (well, investigation of methodologies of program comparsion -:) may reveal cases that can't be adequately described with our meta-language. Alexander Kopilovitch aek@vib.usr.pu.ru Saint-Petersburg Russia