status of language design documents; name; spelling

[pdmosses@daimi.aau.dk]

Contents:

* Status of Language Design documents
* Re: The name of the language
* Pedantry: parameterize

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Status of Language Design documents
From: pdmosses@brics.dk

The status of the CoFI tentative language design documents is as
follows:

* The name: CASL still seems to be the favourite (but see the message
on this topic below).  BTW, does anyone know how one might register
the name of a language, to guard against anyone else stealing our name?

* Tentative Language Design Summary: Various comments on v0.93 have
been sent to cofi-language.  These will be taken account of in v0.94,
which is in preparation.  If anyone would like to respond directly to
the comments on cofi-language, or make further comments on particular
constructs, they should do so THIS WEEK, please!

* Subsorting: Maura Cerioli is about to finish a revised study note,
reflecting the agreements/compromises reached on this topic after the
Bremen meeting.

* Cyclic library sections: In the absence of reactions to the proposal
to drop them, they will be removed from the language summary.

* Parametrization, compound identifiers: Michel Bidoit is revising his
note to take account of some comments sent to cofi-language.  The new
version will be announced on cofi-language later this week, together
with a concise summary of the changes.

* Architectural specifications: Peter Mosses is revising [PDM-2] to
take account of some comments sent to cofi-language.  The new version
will be announced on cofi-language later this week, together with a
concise summary of the changes.

The editor of the Tentative Language Design Summary aims to release
v0.94 by MONDAY 4 NOVEMBER.

  ==============================================================
  ||  Please reserve time for reading and commenting on v0.94 ||
  ||                 BEFORE the Edinburgh meetings!           ||
  ==============================================================

(Apologies for the short time available for this.)  It is ESSENTIAL
for those of us meeting in Edinburgh - especially the coordinators of
the various task groups - to get an accurate impression of the
acceptability of the various constructs and features of the tentative
language design, as reflected by v0.94 and your comments on that!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: The name of the language
From: bkb@Informatik.Uni-Bremen.DE (Bernd Krieg-Brueckner)

I don't like CASL very much as it sounds like "little cheese" in
German; of course I will bend to overwhelming majority, though.

[The intended pronunciation of CASL is as CASTLE, with A as in CALM.
Does that help?  --PDM]

How much trouble is it to check the other names?

[It seems that FOCAL is used a lot on WWW, see http://www.focal.ch -
but there with no relevance to computing:

  FOCAL, the leading national institute for futher training in the movie
  and audiovisual trade, was created in 1990 by Swiss professional
  organizations. Its programme draws its inspiration from the needs of
  all established and emerging lines in the audiovisual field.

However, FOCAL (like CASL) also seems to be the name of a minor
language:

http://oak.oakland.edu:8080/pub/cpmug/cpmug.cat:
VOLUME 16       ASSEMBLERS, OTHER UTILITIES AND FOCAL

16.1    9K      ASMX.COM        ASSEMBLER WHICH RECOGNIZES Z-80 OPS SEE VOL.DOC
16.2    12K     COPYDSK.ASM     DISK COPY PROGRAM. SEE VOL.DOC
16.3    13K     COPYDSK.MAC     AS 16.2 FOR TDL ASSEMBLER
16.4    7K      CPMUTIL.ASM     CP/M SUBROUTINES 
16.5    3K      EDIT.COM        INTEL-LIKE EDITOR. 
16.6    8K      EDUCATOR.ASM    8080 INSTRUCTION SET TUTOR FROM BYTE JULY 1976
16.7    57K     FOCAL.ASM       FOCAL LANGUAGE INTERPRETER. SEE VOL.DOC

Regarding ALCOL: It appears to mean "alcohol" in Italian...

In case you'd like to try further names yourself, just search e.g. for
NAME (or NAME;language) in Alta Vista.  --PDM]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Pedantry: parameterize
From: Don Sannella <dts@dcs.ed.ac.uk>

> [One further issue on this topic, before we close it: one of
> pedantics!  My dictionary (Concise Oxford, 1976) is quite definite
> that the *only* correct spelling of the verb formed from `parameter'
> is `parametrize' - which corresponds closely to how I would pronounce
> it.  However, many of you seem to prefer `parameterize', or even
> `parameterise'.  Is there a justification for such spellings?  If not,
> I would like us to stick to `parametrize' in approved CoFI documents.
> --PDM]

As far as I know, I'm responsible for this spelling.  I'm aware that
it's incorrect (although I wasn't when I used it for the first time)
but I still like it.  For example:

	charactrize or characterize?
	computrize or computerize?
	
But I'm sure that you will be able to tell me the rationale behind the
dictionary spelling.  [I believe that it has something to do with
pronunciation... --PDM] As an American and not having studied Latin or
Greek I am at a serious disadvantage in such matters!

And I don't mind if we stick with the dictionary spelling in CoFI
documents.

Cheers, Don
----------------------------------------------------------------------