Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 20:03:22 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Watson <robert@cyrus.watson.org> To: Niall Smart <rotel@indigo.ie> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: htags fails. Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980414200148.29364C-100000@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <199804142155.WAA01607@indigo.ie>
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On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, Niall Smart wrote:
> On Apr 14, 1:59am, Terry Lambert wrote:
> } Subject: Re: htags fails.
> >
> > The scripts need to be changed, preferrably by the perl maintainers,
> > the better to teach them to either avoid syntax changes and/or think
> > about the problems the language needs to solve before implementing
> > syntax which will later need to be changed because it wasn't Von Neumann
> > complete.
>
> Von Neumann complete? Thats a new one to me, do you mean they couldn't
> write a Turing machine in it? ;)
I had a similar response -- attached is my response and Terry's answer :).
------------
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 22:53:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Watson <robert@cyrus.watson.org>
To: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>
Subject: Re: htags fails.
On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, Terry Lambert wrote:
> The scripts need to be changed, preferrably by the perl maintainers,
> the better to teach them to either avoid syntax changes and/or think
> about the problems the language needs to solve before implementing
> syntax which will later need to be changed because it wasn't Von Neumann
> complete.
Terry,
I was under the impression that it was Von Neumann complete, just not
comfortably so. One notes that by using a large array + integer
mathmetics and a state machine, one can do whatever one wants (emulate a
Turing machine, encapsulate arithmetic, implement lambda-calculus, make a
JVM, emulate an i586, etc). This is just not a lot of fun, and really not
very practical. :) Having easy to manage memory allocation + references
or pointers is a lot more fun, and far more practical.
Robert N Watson
------------
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 04:40:41 +0000 (GMT)
From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>
To: robert@cyrus.watson.org
Cc: tlambert@primenet.com
Subject: Re: htags fails.
> > The scripts need to be changed, preferrably by the perl maintainers,
> > the better to teach them to either avoid syntax changes and/or think
> > about the problems the language needs to solve before implementing
> > syntax which will later need to be changed because it wasn't Von
Neumann
> > complete.
>
> I was under the impression that it was Von Neumann complete, just not
> comfortably so.
I hereby ammend my statement to include the word "comfrtably". 8-).
Terry Lambert
terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.
------------
Robert N Watson
----
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