Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dartvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!dartvax!chuck From: chuck@dartvax.UUCP (Chuck Simmons) Newsgroups: net.lang Subject: Re: High-levelity Message-ID: <2678@dartvax.UUCP> Date: Sun, 6-Jan-85 21:06:41 EST Article-I.D.: dartvax.2678 Posted: Sun Jan 6 21:06:41 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 8-Jan-85 02:54:04 EST References: <1242@bbncca.ARPA> <10@mit-athena.ARPA> Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Lines: 26 > ... >For a large random list, bubblesort is atrociously slow, and quicksort >is about the best known. A language that is "high-level" for sorting >would express both elegantly. (It might also have an elegant way of >expressing the best and worst cases for each.) Wouldn't a "high-level" language simply allow you to request that your data structure be sorted without you having to worry about how it got that way? >I might also point out that there are several non-equivalent ways >to invert a matrix. Can your language express all of them elegantly? >If not, it's not a "high-level mathematical" language. >... >Basic was invented as a substitute for Fortran, Algol, and all those >other academic playthings. Surely you don't mean to suggest that Basic >is a high-level language!? :-) > > John Chambers In Basic (Dartmouth Basic 6, more or less the original) I would invert a matrix A using the statement: 100 MAT A = INV (A) What could be more high-level?