What is Expressiveness in a Computer Language

[Matthias Blume]

David Squire <David.Squire at no.spam.from.here.au> writes:

> Matthias Blume wrote:
>> David Squire <David.Squire at no.spam.from.here.au> writes:
>> 
>>> Andreas Rossberg wrote:
>>>> Rob Thorpe wrote:
>>>>>>> No, that isn't what I said.  What I said was:
>>>>>>> "A language is latently typed if a value has a property - called it's
>>>>>>> type - attached to it, and given it's type it can only represent values
>>>>>>> defined by a certain class."
>>>>>> "it [= a value] [...] can [...] represent values"?
>>>>> ???
>>>> I just quoted, in condensed form, what you said above: namely, that
>>>> a value represents values - which I find a strange and circular
>>>> definition.
>>>>
>>> But you left out the most significant part: "given it's type it can
>>> only represent values *defined by a certain class*" (my emphasis). In
>>> C-ish notation:
>>>
>>>      unsigned int x;
>>>
>>> means that x can only represent elements that are integers elements of
>>> the set (class) of values [0, MAX_INT]. Negative numbers and
>>> non-integer numbers are excluded, as are all sorts of other things.
>> This x is not a value.  It is a name of a memory location.
>> 
>>> You over-condensed.
>> Andreas condensed correctly.
>
> I should have stayed out of this. I had not realised that it had
> degenerated to point-scoring off someone typing "value" when it is
> clear from context that he meant "variable".

If he really had meant "variable" then he would have been completely wrong.

> Bye.

Bye.