phipps@fortune.UUCP (Clay Phipps) (02/10/84)
I did see small ads in the back of the *Communications of the ACM*
for a Loglan dictionary within the last year or so.
The ad was placed by a "Loglan Foundation" or some such.
I did have some professional contact with Dr. Brown about 10 years
ago that suggests a strong connection between natural language skills
and programming language skills.
At the time Dr. Brown was working on what must have been
the first edition of the dictionary, in 1974 (I think),
I was a programmer at the University of Florida Computer Center.
I was serving as a consultant for him, because he had decided
to write the supporting software for his dictionary in PL/I,
a language that he didn't know when he made his decision
(For those who are unfamiliar with it,
PL/I is a very large and complex programming language,
second only to the new DoD language Ada (and maybe Algol 68)
in terms of its size and complexity; full PL/I is not for computer novices).
As I recall, he originally insisted that he didn't want to learn PL/I per se;
he just wanted to learn enough to get his dictionary finished.
However, he must have been seduced by all the features of PL/I,
because he absorbed (and understood) most of the details of PL/I
inside of a couple of months.
Note that I used the word "consultant" for myself; he really taught himself
the language from the manuals; I just provided some guidance and helped him
with some concepts that were poorly covered in the language manuals.
Furthermore, his big PL/I programs were stylistically good PL/I programs,
not the usual hack jobs you might expect from a non-computer academic.
His learning rate would be an extremely impressive feat for a programmer,
but as I recall, he wasn't particularly familiar with computers at the time.
The guy was really amazing to work with.
At least in his case, highly-developed skills with natural languages
contributed directly to an extremely quick grasp of programming concepts.
Maybe this should be no surprise to anyone.
I left for greener (graduation-induced) pastures before he finished
the book. I have no idea where he is now.
-- Clay Phipps
--
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