From: "Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>
Subject: Re: Build language with weak typing, then add scaffolding later to strengthen it?
Date: Fri, 29 May 2015 16:51:39 -0500
Date: 2015-05-29T16:51:39-05:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <mkan1b$88u$1@loke.gir.dk> (raw)
In-Reply-To: alpine.DEB.2.11.1505291006310.28509@debian
<Stefan.Lucks@uni-weimar.de> wrote in message
news:alpine.DEB.2.11.1505291006310.28509@debian...
>On Thu, 28 May 2015, Randy Brukardt wrote:
>> So now we're at 228 pages. With some reformatting, and removing all of
>> the
>> introductory text, notes, and examples, we'd save at least 20% of that
>> (probably more). So that means that an equivalently formatted Ada
>> standard
>> would probably be roughly 180 pages (or maybe 270 if we left everything
>> in).
>
>Actually, you could get away with significantly less (I'd say, less than
>100 pages) if you rewrote the manual in an Oberon-like (or Wirthian)
>style, i.e., a manual that tells the programmer what he or she needs to
>know, but leaves plenty of details unspecified which the compiler writer
>would need to know.
Which only works if there is never going to be more than one compiler (i.e.
Oberon, Eiffel). Otherwise, it will eventually be a disaster, or the details
will get filled in, or both.
...
>> And, of course, Wirth himself has a long history of writing sloppy
>> language
>> standards and leaving when other people try to clean them up (Algol-W,
>> Pascal, Modula, Modula 2, ...). He's a brilliant language designer, but
>> he
>> always has underdescribed standards. (That surely includes building
>> standards without any library description, which is nonsense for any
>> purpose.)
>
>Now *that* is unfair to Wirth! (Not the part with the brilliant language
>designer, but the other part.)
Not really. He complained about other people's language designs not being
precise (in his Turing Award speech in particular vis-a-vis PL/I), but his
don't seem to need the same amount of detail. I call BS on that.
Randy.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2015-05-29 21:51 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 111+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2015-05-21 19:11 Build language with weak typing, then add scaffolding later to strengthen it? Nasser M. Abbasi
2015-05-21 19:29 ` AdaMagica
2015-05-22 7:27 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2015-05-22 7:42 ` Georg Bauhaus
2015-05-22 8:54 ` Nasser M. Abbasi
2015-05-22 11:29 ` kalvin.news
2015-05-22 12:57 ` J-P. Rosen
2015-05-22 14:01 ` kalvin.news
2015-05-22 14:34 ` kalvin.news
2015-05-23 11:09 ` Peter Chapin
2015-05-22 15:37 ` J-P. Rosen
2015-05-22 16:29 ` kalvin.news
2015-05-22 17:39 ` Simon Clubley
2015-05-22 17:51 ` kalvin.news
2015-05-22 19:41 ` J-P. Rosen
2015-05-22 20:04 ` kalvin.news
2015-05-22 20:32 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2015-05-22 21:22 ` kalvin.news
2015-05-23 11:14 ` Peter Chapin
2015-05-23 12:42 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2015-05-23 17:48 ` Simon Wright
2015-05-25 8:34 ` Pascal Obry
2015-05-25 10:22 ` Simon Wright
2015-05-25 18:12 ` Georg Bauhaus
2015-05-22 20:39 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-28 22:33 ` Randy Brukardt
2015-05-29 6:56 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-23 12:40 ` Georg Bauhaus
2015-05-25 7:14 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-25 12:26 ` Georg Bauhaus
2015-05-25 18:44 ` Shark8
2015-05-25 19:54 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-25 21:25 ` Shark8
2015-05-26 7:46 ` Georg Bauhaus
2015-05-26 8:12 ` Georg Bauhaus
2015-05-25 20:01 ` Nasser M. Abbasi
2015-05-25 20:04 ` Nasser M. Abbasi
2015-05-25 20:37 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-26 7:52 ` Jacob Sparre Andersen
2015-05-26 11:43 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-26 15:38 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-28 23:39 ` Randy Brukardt
2015-05-29 8:51 ` Stefan.Lucks
2015-05-29 18:04 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2015-05-29 21:51 ` Randy Brukardt [this message]
2015-05-30 10:28 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-30 11:12 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2015-05-30 13:21 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-30 15:00 ` Simon Clubley
2015-05-30 18:40 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-30 16:40 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2015-05-30 20:52 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-31 8:31 ` Nasser M. Abbasi
2015-05-31 8:52 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2015-06-04 15:31 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-06-04 17:23 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2015-06-04 20:14 ` Shark8
2015-06-04 23:12 ` Nasser M. Abbasi
2015-06-01 21:36 ` Randy Brukardt
2015-06-04 15:22 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-27 13:41 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-25 23:05 ` Peter Chapin
2015-05-26 8:01 ` Sylvain Laperche
2015-05-26 8:20 ` Georg Bauhaus
2015-05-26 8:49 ` J-P. Rosen
2015-05-26 12:36 ` Simon Clubley
2015-05-26 13:39 ` J-P. Rosen
2015-05-26 14:21 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2015-05-26 16:19 ` Shark8
2015-05-26 20:51 ` J-P. Rosen
2015-05-26 17:11 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2015-05-28 23:49 ` Randy Brukardt
2015-05-29 21:54 ` Randy Brukardt
2015-05-29 22:32 ` Jeffrey R. Carter
2015-05-26 8:17 ` Georg Bauhaus
2015-05-28 22:46 ` Randy Brukardt
2015-05-28 23:18 ` Nasser M. Abbasi
2015-05-29 21:27 ` Randy Brukardt
2015-05-29 7:55 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-29 9:27 ` Simon Wright
2015-05-29 10:23 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-29 12:01 ` G.B.
2015-05-29 13:43 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-29 15:32 ` Simon Wright
2015-05-29 15:57 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-29 9:31 ` Jacob Sparre Andersen
2015-05-29 10:37 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-29 10:56 ` Björn Lundin
2015-05-29 12:03 ` Peter Chapin
2015-05-29 21:00 ` Shark8
2015-05-29 20:57 ` Shark8
2015-05-29 21:36 ` Randy Brukardt
2015-06-01 22:20 ` Shark8
2015-05-29 21:45 ` Randy Brukardt
2015-05-29 23:12 ` Peter Chapin
2015-05-30 9:10 ` Georg Bauhaus
2015-05-23 13:01 ` Luke A. Guest
2015-05-22 17:57 ` Simon Wright
2015-05-22 18:31 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-22 14:03 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-22 15:21 ` David Botton
2015-05-22 15:23 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-22 15:31 ` Bob Duff
2015-05-22 15:48 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-22 14:25 ` G.B.
2015-05-22 15:04 ` Bill White
2015-05-22 15:28 ` Bob Duff
2015-05-22 17:46 ` Simon Clubley
2015-05-22 18:16 ` jan.de.kruyf
2015-05-22 19:01 ` Simon Wright
2015-05-22 19:41 ` jan.de.kruyf
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