SCOUG-Programming Mailing List Archives

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Date:	Thu, 17 Apr 2003 07:16:53 PDT
From:	"Lynn H. Maxson" <lmaxson@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-programming@scoug.com
To:	"SCOUG Programming SIG" <scoug-programming@scoug.com >
Subject:	SCOUG-Programming: This month's SIG meeting

Content Type: text/plain

Greg, I will make every effort to have whatever you send me
on the presentation machine for Saturday's SIG meeting.

I assume that everyone has followed with some interest the
discussion initiated by Peter Skye relative to permutation
algorithms as well as his response the incremental
optimization techniques he employs as part of his investment
strategies. This includes Bob Blair's submission of a REXX
program to do the permutations. This gives us an opportunity
to add REXX to C, PL/I, APL, and Python to our language
group for comparative linguistics.

I make no bones that I think you can do just as well and as
easily with one all inclusive, all purpose language as you can
with a set of special purpose ones. That's simply an unproven
assertion thus far. In simpler terms an opinion. It's proof,
disproof, or something inbetween should come out of any
serious comparative linguistic study.

All this plus Carla's desire to update the Programming SIG
pages on the SCOUG website we should discuss as this
Saturday's SIG meeting as well. If we cannot make the case
for a single specification language, remembering that all
programming languages are specification languages, then we
ought to make the case for minimizing the languages
necessary. Once minimized we should make them as easy to
master as possible.

There are other websites, hundreds of them in fact, that
provide information on different programming languages.
There are none to the best of my knowledge that provides a
common means of evaluating them using comparative
linguistics. So we have an opportunity to break new ground
here as well as enhance SCOUG's support of the OS/2
community through open source.

In the meantime we needn't forget HPCalc. We have simply
expanded the number of sample programs to consider. We do
have a need to offer a tutorial on PM programming into which
we can fit the sample programs where applicable.

Somewhere along the way I do want to make a more
convincing argument that a single, multi-functional, software
tool can rise above the class of Swiss Army Knives with its
implication of compromise. Maybe I will adopt something like
Peter's incremental optimization technique applied to software
tools.

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