Re: linear syntax?

From: paul c <toledobythesea_at_oohay.ac>
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 01:37:58 GMT
Message-ID: <WBHmg.80729$IK3.33646@pd7tw1no>

-CELKO- wrote:

>>>  What did he mean by linear syntax? <<

>
> A language that can be parsed from left to right (or vice versa, if you
> are arab; top to bottom if you are Chinese). One token after another
> in a sequence, as opposed to a map which needs two dimensins to make
> sense.
>

Okay, I guess that allows parsers that look ahead and then retreat and possibly poetry too. I wonder what Codd was trying to disallow, guessing perhaps it was a relational impl'n limited to the kind of multiple-parameter-idiosyncratic call interfaces he would have seen in IMS et al or maybe even QBE which had come out in the mid-1980's which was when I think his list appeared in the Computerworld flyer.

p Received on Thu Jun 22 2006 - 20:37:58 CDT