raino@td2cad.intel.com (Rodger Raino) (09/07/88)
These are some comments that stem from the discussion here about
syntax (pre-post-in-outfix), data typing, etc. All these issues imply
that machine concerns are more important than human concerns. A DO
loop is really looking at something from the machines point of view,
it has very little to do with how *I* think as a human being. Now being
good programers it seems we have a talent for speaking in terms that
machines "like", but perhaps this also influences what we are capable
of saying. Forth allows (encourages?) us to move away from the tyranny
of the machine. For example in Forth I can write poetically
: AI ( -- )
the Rules
learn
;
This probably needs a bit of fleshing out to run, but it is in fact a
ligit and elegant (IMHO) program. Notice that as a statment to
humans (as opposed to machine) the visual layout is as important as
the syntax. I think the most interesting word here is "the". Anyone
want to venture a defination beyond : the ' (the) ; which doesn't
quite do the trick. And what about this pesky "(the)", what *do* we
use this word *for* in english?
Forth thru it's insistence that no character is "special" and can be
used for *any* purpose allows humans to dominate the machine. Once
we give away even a single glyph, maybe just a simple "()" set of
parens, the machine is in a controling position. We end up speaking
(and thinking) in it's language not our own. In the past it this may
have been reasonable due to hardware costs, but now we should just tell
the droids to eat cake!
One final note RPN doesn't just mean flipping the order around
think(big) /shouldn't have given the parens away
/and what about this backslash
does not become
big think
rather based on what *you* want to say it should be something like
big thinking
big thoughts
big idea
thanks
rodger
--
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i know i'm a bad speller, don't waste FlameWidth pointing out old news
intel agrees with this, but not necessarly anything above the line.
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