rcd@ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn) (03/25/88)
OK, the paper "From Modula to Oberon" was somewhat interesting and
contained some valid points. It might actually be by Wirth...it is
certainly marked by Wirth's strong concern (some might say obsession)
with compiler simplicity. But how long can you take this sort of thing
seriously? Stop and think for a minute...eliminating enumerations,
subranges, even `for' loops??? retaining sets only in their most vexingly
machine-dependent form???
Nah, someone (whether Wirth himself or someone spoofing his ever-questing-
for-greater-simplicity style) is trying to put one Ober on us! Most
people know the name "Oberon" as a moon of Uranus...is someone "mooning"
us? (And as for Uranus, well...you know the jokes about that name.)
I looked at the paper seriously for a while, but the "silly factor" was
just too high. If we see a language spec, I'm betting that it comes out
on April 1.
--
Dick Dunn UUCP: {hao,nbires,cbosgd}!ico!rcd (303)449-2870
...Simpler is better.hal@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Hal Perkins) (03/27/88)
In article <3229@ico.ISC.COM> rcd@ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn) writes: >OK, the paper "From Modula to Oberon" was somewhat interesting and >contained some valid points. It might actually be by Wirth... > >Nah, someone (whether Wirth himself or someone spoofing his ever-questing- >for-greater-simplicity style) is trying to put one Ober on us! Not likely. There are two papers published as an ETH tech report: "From Modula to Oberon" and "The Programming Language Oberon" by N. Wirth, report no. 82, Sept. 1987. Prof. Wirth says that a revised version will be published shortly in Software -- Practice and Experience. Hal Perkins hal@gvax.cs.cornell.edu Cornell CS