[REBOL] Re: Not-too-smart Table Parser (was: how to handle tables?)
From: sanghabum:aol at: 23-Sep-2001 17:47
[meekerdb--rain--org] writes
> There are two ways to write error-free programs.
> Only the third one works.
Hi Brent,
Your sig reminded me of a quote from Tony Hoare (The devisor of the language
occam):
One way (of designing software) is to make it so simple that there are
obviously no deficiencies and the other way is to make it so complicated that
there are no obvious deficiencies.
And that reminded me of an ancient Datamation article by Tony Karp on the
philosophy behind the Baggage language.
The designers of Babbage have chosen a third alternative - a language that
has only obvious deficiencies.... None of Babbage is defined except its
extensibility - each user must define his own version. To end the debate of
large languages versus small, Babbage allows each user to make the language
any size he wants. Babbage is the ideal language for the
me" generation."
The original article is freely available on the web at
www.tlc-systems.com/babbage.htm
I'm sure you'll agree that it's a valuable contribution to the language
design debate.
--Colin.
