1. offtopic Acronyms (was offtopic: ASP)
----- Original Message -----
From: Gerardo E. Brandariz
To: Euphoria Programming for MS-DOS
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 1:33 AM
Subject: RE: offtopic: ASP
>
> MS usually stand for 'MicroSoft', but ... where do you find it? In what
context? It might > also mean 'ManuScript'.
>
> SW might mean 'SouthWest', 'SoftWare', 'ShareWare', or even 'Southern
Winds', an
> airline here in Argentina.
>
> A good place to search for acronyms is The Penn State University Libraries
Reference > (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/catsweb/tools/langlist.htm)
>
> Best of luck!
>
> Gerardo E. Brandariz
Amazing, Depending on context acronyms mean different things.
Unfortunately the same can be said of words.
Example:
read
My assignment was to read the book so I read it.
Lucius L. Hilley III
lhilley at cdc.net
+----------+--------------+--------------+
| Hollow | ICQ: 9638898 | AIM: LLHIII |
| Horse +--------------+--------------+
| Software | http://www.cdc.net/~lhilley |
+----------+-----------------------------+
2. Re: offtopic Acronyms (was offtopic: ASP)
----- Original Message -----
From: Lucius L. Hilley III <lhilley at CDC.NET>
To: <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 10:06 AM
Subject: offtopic Acronyms (was offtopic: ASP)
> Amazing, Depending on context acronyms mean different things.
> Unfortunately the same can be said of words.
> Example:
> read
> My assignment was to read the book so I read it.
>
> Lucius L. Hilley III
> lhilley at cdc.net
> +----------+--------------+--------------+
> | Hollow | ICQ: 9638898 | AIM: LLHIII |
> | Horse +--------------+--------------+
> | Software | http://www.cdc.net/~lhilley |
> +----------+-----------------------------+
Unfortunately? Sorry, but I can't agree. True, life would be easier if each
word had exactly one meaning, and to each meaning (whatever that may be) you
could assign a word. It's been tried over and over again, and it doesn't
work. And not just because our brains just work that way, though that's
important too.
Take frequency as a function of time. Add a minimal, yes/no, on/off
modulation, and you have binary code. Programming languages. Morse code.
Traffic lights. Useful, even interesting, but quite limited. Now add full
modulation over a broad range. You get tone, pitch. You can be
interrogative, desperate or friendly. You get music.
Context works like that. 'Read the book' says little. It may be a request,
as when the writer says 'read the book, or I'll have to find a job'. It may
be an order from the teacher: 'Read the book for Friday'. It may be a sales
pitch: 'Want to find out more? Read the book'. Or encouragement from Mommy:
'Read the book, honey, you're old enough to understand it.'
Let's add it to the wish list: programming languages that work in a
contextual way. Not just 'print x', but also 'please print x' meaning
'format it nicely', and 'fast print x', for 'do it as quick as you can,
freeze anything else and forget about the frills'. What about 'maybe print
x', meaning 'print x only if there's anything useful to print'?
Of course, you can already do most of it using functions. Bit it's hard to
code, and your maybe() would likely be very different from mine.
Let's think about it for a while.
Gerardo E. Brandariz
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