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in reply to Re: don't { use Perl }
in thread don't { use Perl }
Higher level programming languages make it easier for humans to
write programs, reason about programs, and to communicate with each
other about programming. Higher level languages do not do one wit for
the machine, which doesn't "understand" the program in the first
place. Of course higher level languages are very highly constrained
and rule bound, so is the language of mathematics. Nevertheless, both the speakers
and the listeners of high level programming languages are humans.
Computers aren't necessary in the equation.
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Re: don't { use Perl }
by Abigail-II (Bishop) on Jun 10, 2002 at 17:01 UTC
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So, when I call 'gcc' it's really a little man inside
my laptop that emits the binary?
Abigail | [reply] |
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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.
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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.
()-()
\"/
`
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