wex@SW.MCC.COM (Alan Wexelblat) (04/13/88)
The following in Robert Firth's message caught my eye:
> ...it would remove about 12 PAGES of VDM in the draft standard,...
Could someone please tell me what VDM means in this context and how it
is being used in the draft standard? Email is fine, since I suspect
this isn't of great interest to the entire list. Thanks!
--Alan Wexelblat
ARPA: WEX@MCC.COM
UUCP: {harvard, gatech, pyramid, &c.}!sally!im4u!milano!wex
The Pentagon has "fire and forget" systems; I have "file and forget."randy@oresoft.UUCP (Randy Bush) (04/17/88)
Alan Wexelblat writes: >The following in Robert Firth's message caught my eye: >> ...it would remove about 12 PAGES of VDM in the draft standard,... >Could someone please tell me what VDM means in this context and how it >is being used in the draft standard? Email is fine, since I suspect >this isn't of great interest to the entire list. Thanks! As I believe it may indeed be of interest to this mailing list, I will take the liberty of replying publicly. It is certainly more relevant than C++ operator overloading for stream I/O <grin>. The BSI is drafting the Modula-2 standard. The draft is written in both VDM and English (with forthcoming French translation per ISO rules). Those who can remember Algol 68 have qualms about VDM, but these have been mostly allayed by the BSI's reassurance that the English definition will be sufficient to stand on its own. I guess we will judge by the result. If folk have very serious objections to the use of VDM for the Modula-2 standard, this will likely cause extreme net.agony, but better late than never. At the August IEEE-Modus-ISO meetings in the States, there will be a tutorial on the dialect of VDM being used. -- randy@oresoft.uu.net FidoNet:1:105/6.6 randy%oresoft.uu.net@relay.cs.net +1 (503) 245-2202 { ..!mcvax!uunet, ..!textronix, ..!sun!nosun } !oresoft!randy