From: Simon Clubley <clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP>
Subject: Re: why Ada type casting is different from other languages? newType(value) vs. (newType)value
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 19:41:58 +0000 (UTC)
Date: 2014-07-14T19:41:58+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <lq1bq1$o5d$1@dont-email.me> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 53c40435$0$6612$9b4e6d93@newsspool4.arcor-online.net
On 2014-07-14, G.B. <rm-dash-bau-haus@dash.futureapps.de> wrote:
>
> It appears that in some situations style alone is not a permissible
> language design guide. WRT syntax, McIver and Conway explain, with
> novice programmers in mind, that there needs to be a good signal
> to noise ratio and that this may mean just enough syntax, but also
> enough syntax. In particular, they address "homonyms",
> as in "type(expression)" vs "something-else(expression)".
>
> "Alternatively, it may be better to increase the complex-
> ity of the syntax in order to reduce homonyms which blur
> the signal. For example, the meaning of the various compo-
> nents of the Turing expression^7:
>
>
> f(C(p).A(I))(N)
>
> "might be better conveyed with the syntax:
>
> f(C::p->A_{I})[N]
>
To be honest, that suggestion by the authors sounds a bit bogus to me.
By the time a newcomer is far enough along to understand the concepts
behind that syntax, does that person really still need that special
syntax ?
The above is not what you would teach a student new to programming
in their first week of class.
Simon.
--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2014-07-14 19:41 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 23+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2014-07-13 1:55 why Ada type casting is different from other languages? newType(value) vs. (newType)value Nasser M. Abbasi
2014-07-13 3:01 ` Shark8
2014-07-13 6:26 ` Jeffrey Carter
2014-07-13 14:33 ` Dan'l Miller
2014-07-13 9:01 ` Niklas Holsti
2014-07-13 9:08 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2014-07-13 10:20 ` AdaMagica
2014-07-13 10:24 ` Georg Bauhaus
2014-07-14 23:36 ` Randy Brukardt
2014-07-15 18:42 ` G.B.
2014-07-15 19:14 ` Niklas Holsti
2014-07-15 22:47 ` Georg Bauhaus
2014-07-15 19:19 ` Jeffrey Carter
2014-07-15 23:07 ` Georg Bauhaus
2014-07-15 22:00 ` Randy Brukardt
2014-07-13 14:42 ` Dan'l Miller
2014-07-14 15:25 ` Adam Beneschan
2014-07-14 16:24 ` G.B.
2014-07-14 17:41 ` Simon Wright
2014-07-14 19:41 ` Simon Clubley [this message]
2014-07-14 20:51 ` Dan'l Miller
2014-07-14 23:23 ` Randy Brukardt
2014-07-15 19:22 ` Marius Amado-Alves
replies disabled
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox