Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site wdl1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!amdcad!fortune!wdl1!jbn From: jbn@wdl1.UUCP Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: Re: Optimization and language level Message-ID: <193@wdl1.UUCP> Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 16:43:24 EST Article-I.D.: wdl1.193 Posted: Tue Jan 15 16:43:24 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 20-Jan-85 06:21:20 EST Sender: jrb@wdl1.UUCP Organization: Ford Aerospace, Western Development Laboratories Lines: 13 Nf-ID: #R:harvard:-22700:wdl1:17100045:000:624 Nf-From: wdl1!jbn Dec 21 12:57:00 1984 Exactly right. The problem is language design. I have written a longish paper on this subject as it relates to C, and will send it on to anyone interested. (Much of it is a formal treatment of C arithmetic and how it could be defined in a portable way). It is possible to design a language in which the semantics are totally nailed down, but it is unusual to do so. Such a language is completely portable. The UCSD P-system P-code can be thought of as such a language. But no programming language defined to date and widely used meets this criterion; even Ada is defined sloppily in places. John Nagle