rcd@opus.UUCP (03/09/84)
<>
Some pretty contorted excerpts from IRS codes showed up as jokes, but
you don't have to go as far as the IRS codes to find tangled
self-references. From the original ALGOL 68 Report:
No proper program contains an indication which as an operator-applied
occurrence identifies an operator-defining occurrence which as an
indication-applied occurrence identifies an indication-defining occurrence
different from the one identified by the given indication as an
indication-applied occurrence.
To be fair, the Report was significantly revised in response to a directive
from the parent IFIP group "to make its study easier for the uninitiated
reader..." which produced the following revision of the above sentence:
DYADIC:: priority PRIO.
MONADIC:: priority iii iii iii i.
ADIC:: DYADIC; MONADIC.
TALLETY:: TALLY; EMPTY.
MOID NEST DYADIC formula:
MODE1 NEST DYADIC TALLETY operand,
procedure with MODE1 parameter MODE2 parameter
yielding MOID NEST applied operator with TAD,
where DYADIC TAD identified in NEST,
MODE2 NEST DYADIC TALLY operand.
...plus a similar definition of `MOID NEST MONADIC formula', a definition for
`MODE NEST ADIC operand', and some standard definitions, required to expand
the above, for `QUALITY NEST APPLIED INDICATOR with TAX' (aha! there's the
IRS connection!), and for `WHETHER PROP identified in NEST new PROPSETY'.
But what does it all mean, you ask? Mr. Natural has something pretty
close to the answer, but I digress. Background: ALGOL 68 allows
specification of operator precedence (priority). What they're saying is
that the same "priority declaration" (and not just the same priority) must
be in effect when an operator is defined as when it is used. <<May the
gods of formalism forgive me.>> ...still, my favorite (from the original
Report) is:
REFETY ROWSETY ROWWSETY NONROW slice: weak REFETY ROWS ROWWSETY NONROW
primary, sub symbol, ROWS leaving ROWSETY indexer, bus symbol.
(somebody has a bad slice...)
(I think we're all bozos on this bus symbol...)
{ucbvax,hao,allegra}!nbires!rcd