Re: What databases have taught me

From: Marshall <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com>
Date: 5 Jul 2006 08:08:54 -0700
Message-ID: <1152112134.540023.29450@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>

frebe73_at_gmail.com wrote:

> Anyway, every
> programming language has a formal definition (event OO languages).

I don't agree. For many languages the only spec is the reference implementation, and that doesn't qualify as a formal definition. For other languages, there may be a lengthy prose specification that attempts to pin down as much as possible, (Java) but that still doesn't rise to the level of having an actually defined semantics against which important proofs of language behavior have been done.

Marshall Received on Wed Jul 05 2006 - 10:08:54 CDT