16.084 highly constrained languages

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty (w.mccarty@btinternet.com)
Date: Fri Jun 21 2002 - 04:37:27 EDT

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                    Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 16, No. 84.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
                  <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

       [1] From: Aime Morrison
    <ahm@ualberta.ca> (24)
             Subject: RE: 16.080 highly constrained languages

       [2] From: William Cole <bill@donutage.org> (18)
             Subject: Re: 16.073 highly constrained language

    --[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
             Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 09:06:06 +0100
             From: Aime Morrison <ahm@ualberta.ca>
             Subject: RE: 16.080 highly constrained languages

    >Guy Steele is a (programming) language designer, most recently famous
    >for his participation in the design of the Java language.

    what a great paper! it's heartening to see a technical talk that is so clear
    and engaging. we ought all aim to write so simply and powerfully. steele
    obviously works to engage his audience in the problem he presents, and makes
    them part of the solution-finding process. the paper is remarkably free of
    jargon (and, i might say, smarty-pantsing), is enlivened by good humour and
    goodwill, and enriched by interdisciplinary secondary texts and historical
    examples. i'm a big fan.

    but steele's writing style is to me hardly surprising -- remember how we've
    been recently discussing eric raymond's jargon file / _new hacker's
    dictionary_? the original publication has steele as first author.

    [Steele, Guy L., et al. The Hacker's Dictionary: A Guide to the World of
    Computer Wizards. New York: Harper and Row, 1983. -- in addition to the terms,
    steele writes the 'confessions of a happy hacker']

    boy, if i had to define every word > (2 syllables) in my diss, i'd be in big
    trouble ;-)

    aimee

    . ++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Aime Morrison "It is our national joy
    PhD Program, Dept. of English to mistake for the first
    University of Alberta rate, the fecund rate."
    ahm@ualberta.ca -- Dorothy Parker,
                                               on literary productivity

    --[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
             Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 09:05:31 +0100
             From: William Cole <bill@donutage.org>
             Subject: Re: 16.073 highly constrained language

    Humanists:

    Regarding the intersection of language-constraint and computers, I'd like to
    call attention to the work currently being done by Nick Montfort. Among the
    works relevant to this discussion are his "2002: A Palindrome Story" (with
    William Gillespie) -- a 2002-word palindrome written with the help of a
    computer program designed by the authors -- and "Ad Verbum" -- an
    "interactive fiction" in the spirit of "Adventure" that incorporates a
    number of constrained-language puzzles. The latter was featured in the
    Hnypertext Reading Room at the just-completed ACM Hypertext 02 conference at
    the University of Maryland. Both texts are available on the web: 2002 is at
    http://www.spinelessbooks.com/2002/ and Ad Verbum at
    http://www.nickm.com/if/adverbum_web.html

    Cheers...

    --
    William Cole <w.cole@morehead-st.edu>
    Instructional Technology Director, College of Education
    Morehead State University
    801 Ginger Hall || (606) 783-9326
    http://people.morehead-st.edu/fs/w.cole/
    



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