On Thursday, 23 January 2014 at 10:24:23 UTC, Chris wrote:
> On Wednesday, 22 January 2014 at 18:46:06 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> On 1/22/2014 3:40 AM, Chris wrote:
>>> Syntax is getting simplified due to the fact that the listener "knows what we
>>> mean", e.g. "buy one get one free". I wonder to what extent languages will be
>>> simplified one day. But this is a topic for a whole book ...
>>
>> There was this article recently:
>>
>> http://www.onthemedia.org/story/yesterday-internet-solved-20-year-old-mystery/
>>
>> about how english is so redundant one can write sentences using just the first letter of each word, and it is actually understandable.
>
> These examples are more about context than redundancy in the grammar. This is very interesting, because the burden is more and more on the listener and less on the speaker. The speaker can omit things relying on the listener's common sense or knowledge of the world (or "you know what I mean" skills). In the beginning, languages were quite complicated (8 or more cases, inflections), but over the centuries things have been simplified, probably due to the fact that humans are experienced enough and can now trust the "interpreter" in the listener's head.
> A good example are headlines. A classic is "Driver refused license". Now, everybody will assume that it was not the driver who refused the license (default assumption or the _unmarked case_). If it were in fact the driver who refused the license, the headline would have been different, some sort of linguistic flag would have been raised. This goes into the realms of pragmatics, a very interesting discipline. Some of the concepts found in natural languages can also be found in programming languages. I find it extremely interesting how the human mind (not just language) is reflected in programming languages.

Headlines are a good source. My favourites are from WW2...

MacArthur flies back to front.

British push bottles up Germans.

-<mike>-

On Wednesday, 22 January 2014 at 04:29:05 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1vtm2l/so_you_want_to_write_your_own_language_dr_dobbs/

Nice Walter. You're almost as down-to-earth as me. I love what you have achieved.

On 1/24/2014 9:56 AM, Steve Teale wrote:
> On Wednesday, 22 January 2014 at 04:29:05 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1vtm2l/so_you_want_to_write_your_own_language_dr_dobbs/
>>
>
> Nice Walter. You're almost as down-to-earth as me. I love what you have achieved.
>

Thanks Steve! I've always found you inspiring.

(For those who don't know, Steve & I go way, way back to the 1980's. He wrote the iostream implementation for Zortech C++, and was instrumental in the success of Zortech.)

On Thursday, 23 January 2014 at 10:24:23 UTC, Chris wrote:
> A good example are headlines. A classic is "Driver refused license". Now, everybody will assume that it was not the driver who refused the license (default assumption or the _unmarked case_).

Why it's not a driver who refused a license?

On Monday, 27 January 2014 at 09:19:25 UTC, Kagamin wrote:
> On Thursday, 23 January 2014 at 10:24:23 UTC, Chris wrote:
>> A good example are headlines. A classic is "Driver refused license". Now, everybody will assume that it was not the driver who refused the license (default assumption or the _unmarked case_).
>
> Why it's not a driver who refused a license?

More likely that it's a driver who was refused a license by the State (because of some reason such as "you've been caught drinking and driving 20 times so you're totally banned"). People aren't offered licenses and accept or reject them, they must seek them out. It doesn't make sense for someone to walk up (or be given a ride to by a friend) to the DMV wait 30 minutes and once they do all the work to get the license say "Wait, no, I refuse this after all."

So, despite "Driver refused license" possibly meaning "the driver refused to accept the license despite being able to" or "driver was refused a license by the State (due to some circumstance)", it's massively more likely to be the latter.

On Tuesday, 28 January 2014 at 00:48:48 UTC, Chris Cain wrote:
> It doesn't make sense for someone to walk up (or be given a ride to by a friend) to the DMV wait 30 minutes and once they do all the work to get the license say "Wait, no, I refuse this after all."

Pretty dramatic action, if he, say, did something bad with his car and swore to never drive again.

On 1/21/2014 8:29 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1vtm2l/so_you_want_to_write_your_own_language_dr_dobbs/

Just showed up on Hacker News:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7172971

On Tuesday, 4 February 2014 at 07:43:36 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 1/21/2014 8:29 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1vtm2l/so_you_want_to_write_your_own_language_dr_dobbs/
>
> Just showed up on Hacker News:
>
> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7172971

A reply blog article appeared on reddit today:

http://genericlanguage.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/advice-on-writing-a-programming-language/

On 2/4/14, 8:59 AM, Gary Willoughby wrote:
> On Tuesday, 4 February 2014 at 07:43:36 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>> On 1/21/2014 8:29 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>>> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1vtm2l/so_you_want_to_write_your_own_language_dr_dobbs/
>>>
>>
>> Just showed up on Hacker News:
>>
>> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7172971
>
> A reply blog article appeared on reddit today:
>
> http://genericlanguage.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/advice-on-writing-a-programming-language/
>

http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1wz8k6/advice_on_writing_a_programming_language/

Andrei

On 2/4/2014 10:54 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 2/4/14, 8:59 AM, Gary Willoughby wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 4 February 2014 at 07:43:36 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
>>> On 1/21/2014 8:29 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>>>> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1vtm2l/so_you_want_to_write_your_own_language_dr_dobbs/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Just showed up on Hacker News:
>>>
>>> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7172971
>>
>> A reply blog article appeared on reddit today:
>>
>> http://genericlanguage.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/advice-on-writing-a-programming-language/
>>
>>
>
> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1wz8k6/advice_on_writing_a_programming_language/

And it's the top reddit article at the moment!