Abstract
I can still find no better way to express my thoughts on this subject than the following [McKeeman 66]: “The universe and its reflection in the ideas of man have wonderfully complex structures. Our ability to comprehend this complexity and perceive an underlying simplicity is intimately bound with our ability to symbolize and communicate our experience. The scientist has been free to extend and invent language whenever old forms became unwieldy or inadequate to express his ideas. His readers however have faced the double task of learning his new language and the new structures he described. There has therefore arisen a natural control: a work of elaborate linguistic inventiveness and meager results will not be widely read.”
“It is as important to forbid non-sense as it is to permit good sense”
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References
W. M. McKeeman, Algol 60 Reference Language Editor, Comm. ACM, Vol. 8, No. 1 November 1965, pg 667.
W. M. McKeeman, An Approach to Computer Language Design, Ph.D. Thesis, Stanford University, April 1966.
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© 1974 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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McKeeman, W.M. (1974). Programming Language Design. In: Bauer, F.L., Eickel, J. (eds) Compiler Construction. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 21. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-21549-4_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-21549-4_19
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