in reply to Re: Re: don't { use Perl }
in thread don't { use Perl }

So, when I call 'gcc' it's really a little man inside my laptop that emits the binary?

Abigail

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Re: Re: don't { use Perl }
by Anonymous Monk on Jun 10, 2002 at 17:14 UTC
    Heh. That would be confusing 'translation' for understanding. We often say things like: "the compiler doesn't understand that statement" or some such. But that's just us playing fast and loose. The compiler doesn't understand perfectly valid statements any more than it fails to understand invalid ones. Neither translation of a high level language to a machine language, nor execution of the machine level binary constitutes any reasonable interpretation of "understanding" the program. There is no homunculus required in your laptop to translate or run your C program.
[reply]
      Still, the only reason I write higher level computer languages is to communicate with a computer. I communicate with humans in English, or Dutch if I have to. And I need to terminate all statements in C with a semi-colon, for no other purpose of satisfying the compiler.

      Not because humans suddenly fail to understand. Just the compiler, and the compiler ain't no human.

      Abigail

[reply]
        Still, the only reason I write higher level computer languages is to communicate with a computer.

        We write computer programs to control a machine through a sequence of states. We use higher level programming languages to do so because we can more readily and more reliably express and specify such sequences of states. We are the audience of our higher level programming languages.

[reply]
Re: Re: don't { use Perl }
by ignatz (Vicar) on Jun 10, 2002 at 17:53 UTC
    I imagine him as green, about 3 inches tall, with a little helmet that has antenni comming out of it and when he talks they beep out binary instructions: "beep beep bee-beep beep". Kinda like the space creature that bugged Fred Flinstone every now and then. Wish I could remember his name. 
    ()-()
 \"/
  `
[reply]

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