Re: Thinking about MINUS

On Jan 9, 12:53 pm, Bob Badour <bbad..._at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>
> > One is a question WITHOUT a defined answer.
> > One is a question WITH a defined answer.
>
> > Asking the first type of question is pointless.
>
> > [snip]What if the point is to determine whether it has a defined answer?

Here again I see the difference between the static and the dynamic. Static analysis of a language asks exactly that: do all of these terms have
defined semantics? Expressions that have passed static analysis may then be handed to the runtime system, which will then only be asking questions with a defined meaning, and which would be quite unhappy to receive a question that didn't have one. Thus here I see Bob taking the role of the static analyzer and Gene taking the role of the execution
engine. Both perspectives are *necessary* in my view, however each perspective properly exists at a different stage.

Marshall Received on Wed Jan 10 2007 - 08:35:34 CET