The imp of the perverse (with apologies to E.A.P.)

[Sadhunathan Nadesan]

| 
| I think you took a line out of context; what you are saying is true for 
| most existing languages specially low level, what the author was talking 
| about was how languages *should* be and I agree with him. The fact that 
| Xtalk is the only one closest to what people use to communicate to 
| one-another (at least in some countries) is a crime.
| Talking about "high-tech cave men"...;-)


	Hi Andu,

	Ok, I gotcha.  No argument there.  
	
	This would be a theoretical language then?  One that if we had it,
	it would explain how, and why, and everything one needed to know,
	without having extra comments.	Is that it?    So it would be
	like - having a compiler/interpreter for a human readable spec?

	If so, you are right, I took it out of context.

	I assumed what was being discussed was languages that exist today.
	Even with Xtalk, I see examples done with one letter variable
	names, cryptic function names - other examples are better
	and read more like English.  Which says, in today's languages,
	getting them to 'communicate' is a discipline left to the author.
	Like an artist in any field.

	A programmer can do this in pretty much any language if they put
	their mind to it. Method: top down, you write the main routine
	first in psuedo-code high level statements, then turn each one
	into a routine or collection of routines.  What if there were
	enough smarts in some front end tools to do that all for you?

	Hey, I'd like that.  I see it like this.  I just walk up to
	the computer and say, "COMPUTER!".  It says, "Yes, Sadhu?".
	I say, "I want you write a program that does this .. yada yada"
	and it asks a few questions and spits out the code.

	Well, back to reality, I guess any language that would come
	close to that ideal would be very verbose,   In other words,
	it would be like a regular program that was full of comments!

	Grin!

	Sorry to be poking fun, Andu, no offense meant really, I enjoy
	your posts and respect your point of view.  I just couldn't
	help it, the imp of the perverse and all that.

	Sadhu