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Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 34, No. 66. Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London Hosted by King's Digital Lab www.dhhumanist.org Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org [1] From: C. M. Sperberg-McQueenSubject: 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 _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted List posts to: humanist@dhhumanist.org List info and archives at at: http://dhhumanist.org Listmember interface at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted/ Subscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/membership_form.php
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