crazy programming language thoughts

[Tim Roberts]

"Ryan Lowe" <ryanlowe0 at msn.com> wrote:
>
>one of the things i love about python is its use of the actual words
>or/and/not/is/in, where other languages would use symbols ||/&&/?!@#$%, what
>have you.

The "other languages" thing is a little one-sided.  C and C++ are really
the only mainstream languages to use symbols for these constructs.  Pascal
and Algol use the words or/and/not/is/in, as well as begin/end instead of
{}.

>the basic concept would be to use identifying words in front of the
>arguments to determine their identity as well as making the function call
>read more like an english phrase. for instance, take the simple python
>statement:
>
>>>> vtext.replace('a', 'b')
>
>wouldnt it be nicer (more english-like at least) to say:
>
>>>> replace 'a' with 'b' in vtext

You should check out REXX, the primary scripting language for OS/2.  That
line could have been taken from a REXX script practically unmodified.
-- 
- Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.