[mgp-users 01173] Re: Sam's Improvements; my MGP macro processor

[Chris Ball <chris@void.printf.net>]

Sam,

>> On 02 Jun 2003 17:00:32, Sam Steingold <sds@gnu.org> said:

   > But the official preferred format must be completely unambiguous.
   > I don't care whether it is XML or some other incarnation of the
   > good old S-exp.  All I care is that I can speak and be understood.

And that's your preference; from a Computer Science perspective, it's a
noble one.  However, from the perspective of someone trying to engineer
a solution for other people who may not also be Computer Scientists,
requiring that your user is a valid XML writer loses straight away.

Your argument that we could use a frontend to emulate the current syntax
is specious -- as you point out, the current syntax is ambiguous.  How
would we fit it on top of a representation that actively forbids this?

   > IMNSHO, people who say "I would rather lose the complete unambiguity 
   > in exchange for..." [doesn't matter what!] give the bad name to the
   > profession of a Computer Scientist or Software Engineer or whatever
   > you call it.

I'll go half way with you.  People who are willing to lose complete
unambiguity for a price give a bad name to Computer Science; people
who are willing to make their users write XML give a bad name to
Software Engineering.

Our dilemma as programmers is to decide which profession we'd rather
insult more.

- Chris.
-- 
$a="printf.net";  Chris Ball | chris@void.$a | www.$a | finger: chris@$a
|  "Unix is very simple, but it takes a genius to understand the 
|  simplicity."  -- Dennis Ritchie