Xref: utzoo comp.arch:4677 comp.lang.misc:1555 Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!littlei!ogcvax!pase From: pase@ogcvax.ogc.edu (Douglas M. Pase) Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Universal OS & universal language Message-ID: <1680@ogcvax.ogc.edu> Date: 5 May 88 23:47:44 GMT References: <2845@mmintl.UUCP> <1543@hubcap.UUCP> <768@l.cc.purdue.edu> <1705@alliant.Alliant.COM>Reply-To: pase@ogcvax.UUCP (Douglas M. Pase) Distribution: na Organization: Oregon Graduate Center, Beaverton, OR Lines: 35 In article crowl@cs.rochester.edu (Lawrence Crowl) writes: >Please remove comp.arch from the Newsgroups line when following up to this >topic. For that matter, please remove comp.lang.misc from the Newsgroups line also. I have the following complaints about this latest batch of articles: (1) The assertions/suggestions put forth in certain previous articles reflect only a primitive understanding of language design (and I'm NOT refering to compiler design). For all their vagueness the basic ideas presented seem to be more grandiose but otherwise little different from some of the great "has-been"s of the '60s. a) This language should be everything to everybody... (Ever hear of PL/I or Algol 68?) b) Each programmer should be able to modify the language on the fly... (A previous article has already brought up examples of that.) c) We should adopt a UNIFORM notation... (Aside from its obvious contradictions with (b) above, it's not clear that this really means anything. It is clear that the implications are not understood by the original author.) d) Efficiency is a must... (In terms of what? CPU time? Programmer time? Both? Something else? For which problems? All? Some special subset?... How would you achieve it?) (2) A number of comments seem to indicate the original author considers language designers to be at least an "unimaginative" lot. Judging from the quality of the text surrounding the claims, he who makes the claims is not in a position to do so. -- Doug Pase -- ...ucbvax!tektronix!ogcvax!pase or pase@cse.ogc.edu (CSNet)