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On Feb 13, 2005, at 6:22 PM, skaller wrote:

> What else is a compiler but a bridge to assembler?
> In that light, one might say 'it would help some
> novices program that can't do assembler' ..
>
...

> You should know from Quantum Physics this idea must
> be taken with few grain of salt and a couple of Schroedinger cats.
>
...

> We're open to suggestions on how to do this, for surely
> no one knows. All the maths in the world won't create a good
> programming language, even though it may help weed out poor ones.
>
> ...

> Sure it is: it is what distinguishes the system from a
> mere library. In particular, it provides a way of
> enforcing constraints mere library calls cannot
> -- and perhaps someone else can list other advantages of languages
> over lower level raw API calls?
>
I'm reminded of the Alan Perlis epigram "Beware of the Turing tar-pit 
in which everything is possible but nothing of interest is easy." The 
Ward's Wiki page on it at <http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TuringTarpit> is 
pretty good. Given the thread, the final paragraph of the page is 
likely to throw gasoline on the fire.

> -- 
> John Skaller, mailto:skaller@users.sf.net
> voice: 061-2-9660-0850,
> snail: PO BOX 401 Glebe NSW 2037 Australia
> Checkout the Felix programming language http://felix.sf.net
>
>
>
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Best regards,
Paul

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