[clean-list] Matrix timings

Siegfried Gonzi siegfried.gonzi@kfunigraz.ac.at
Fri, 02 Nov 2001 08:47:16 +0100


Sven-Bodo Scholz sbs@informatik.uni-kiel.de, schrieb

>> [PS: Why do you believe -- on your homepage -- SAC is a functional
> >language? Okay, I did not scrutinize it too much, because when I see
a
> >disguised C syntax I have to cancel.]

>To cut it short: because the semantics of SAC relies on context-free
>substitutions. Although I would love to elaborate this point to some
more
>detail, I think we should discuss this either directly via email or via

the
>SAC-mailing-list.


Sorry, it was not my motivation to depreciate your work. I am not in the

position to say something bad about SAC itself, because I am not player
on the compiler-implementor field, nor did I test SAC.

But believe me or not, I once really wanted to write you an email (as
you announced SAC on comp.lang.functional; as far as I could remember
last year) in order to express my motivation why I would not install or
learn SAC. It has nothing to do with Sac, but I am bounced off at the
moment I see C syntax**. Surely, I would be a weak school-boy and even a

hatred one in terms of "we learn all along our live". But it is more
like: I am drinking Cola and you are drinking Pepsi.

But I do not really comprehend all these new approaches which claim at
the first sentence: New innovation, easy to learn due to a similar C
like syntax.
This is why I admire the work of the Clean guys: they throwed away all
this crippeld C syntax garbage*.

C is not like math and in no way a natural law, therefore I do not feel
guilty that I am prepotently against C.

And one of the greatest strength with Clean are type informations. It
really helps me to see what I do. In Matlab or IDL nobody knows what is
under the hoot and re-using and augmenting code is a real pain.

But you should not get tired to promote SAC. In my opinion there are too

littel new approaches in  computer sciences.


Regards,
S. Gonzi
* We know: the Clean kernel itself is C; but this is comprehensible: you

only can defeat the devil with his own methods.
** My loved Yorick also has C like syntak. That said, this is the reason

why I am now at start for something new to look for (Scilab?).