Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 34, No. 66.
            Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London
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    [1]    From: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen 
           Subject: what might Perlis have meant by 'source independent'? (25)

    [2]    From: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen 
           Subject: Re: what might Perlis have meant by 'source independent'? (43)


--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2020-05-27 19:31:24+00:00
        From: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen 
        Subject: what might Perlis have meant by 'source independent'?

If one asks for an explanation of the name “International Algebraic
Language”, the natural answer will be “because the language is the
product of an international cooperation between ACM and GAMM,
and was specified by an international committee of representatives
of those two organizations”.  That is, the name conveys information
about the source of the language.  The name “Algol”, by contrast,
does not; it is independent of the source of the language.

As for what he meant by “pompous”, well, I guess pomposity is
a bit like humor in that no one wants to explain it.  Eleven syllables,
commandeers what would otherwise be an ordinary-language phrase as a
proper noun, bangs the drum for the language’s
internationality (the implicature of the name is that the internationality
of the language’s origin is relevant; why?), and unpronounceable to
boot.  Perhaps I have been sensitized on this issue by the reactions
outside the working group to the name “XML Schema”.

MIchael

********************************************
C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
Black Mesa Technologies LLC
cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com
http://www.blackmesatech.com


--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2020-05-27 19:29:45+00:00
        From: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen 
        Subject: Re: what might Perlis have meant by 'source independent'?

> On 27,May2020, at 10:52 AM, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen 
wrote:
>
> If one asks for an explanation of the name “International Algebraic
> Language”, the natural answer will be “because the language is the
> product of an international cooperation between ACM and GAMM,
> and was specified by an international committee of representatives
> of those two organizations”.  That is, the name conveys information
> about the source of the language.  The name “Algol”, by contrast,
> does not; it is independent of the source of the language.
>
> As for what he meant by “pompous”, well, I guess pomposity is
> a bit like humor in that no one wants to explain it.  Eleven syllables,
> commandeers what would otherwise be an ordinary-language
> phrase as a proper noun, bangs the drum for the language’s
> internationality (the implicature of the name is that the internationality
> of the language’s origin is relevant; why?), and unpronounceable to
> boot.  Perhaps I have been sensitized on this issue by the reactions
> outside the working group to the name “XML Schema”.

Oh - and on the change from ‘algebraic’ to ‘algorithmic’, the phrase
'algorithmic language’ is already used to refer to the language
in the 1958 preliminary report (while ‘algebraic language’ occurs
only in the title and the first sentence, which suggests it may have
been used in the committee’s terms of reference, if it had any).
Changing the adjective used in the title of the report thus makes
the title match more closely the document’s usual way of identifying
the language.  So perhaps it would have happened even if the wind
had not shifted from IAL to Algol as the name of the language.  But it’s
hard to imagine that ‘algebraic’ could have retained its place
against ‘algorithmic’ once the name changed; at that point, the ‘o’ of
‘Algol’ would have decided any waverers.

  Michael

********************************************
C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
Black Mesa Technologies LLC
cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com
http://www.blackmesatech.com





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