On Mon, Mar 26, 2001 at 01:11:06PM -0700, Dan Brian wrote:
> As for the English influence, you're welcome to identify ways that the
> syntax could be extended or tightened to be less so. That's the intent of
> the mailing list. But please, no more Latin ... I like positional
> dependency. :)
Hmm. I just relized what he's talking about. As an example, most nonsimple
statements (IE past-tense, ones with modal and action verbs, etc) end in the
verb. For example, an english-speaker would say:
I must walk the god. (Subject modal-verb action-verb direct-object.)
A german-speaker would say:
I must the god walk. (Subject modal-verb direct-object action-verb.)
(Yes, I am a dislexic, agnostic insomniac.)
This is exactly analgous to the perl form (english-perl):
sort { f(a) <=> f(b) } @list; (Action-verb subordanate-verb (adverbal form)
direct-object.) OTOH, for a german-speaker, sort @list {f(a) <=> f(b)}
would be more natural (Action-verb direct-object subordanate-verb
(infinitive form)). (Note, BTW, that gramaticly, perl statements always
have a implied subject of "Intepreter" [0]. (Also note that in english, the
adverbal form of a verb normaly ends with ly, in german it ends with en, and
in perl is surrounded by curly-braces.))
Hmm, in fact, perl statements are always in command form, which means that
in german, they are always non-simple sentances, and the verb is always at
the end.
OTOH, there are cases where perl is more readable for not
matching a natural language structure. For example, hit $ball
$outfield; is a normal structure: verb indir-obj dir-obj. OTOH,
$ball->hit ($outfield) is indir-obj verb dir-obj, which is just screwy from
an english point of view, but perfectly normal from a perl viewpoint.
Then again, if you think of objects (in the OO sense) as doing things, then
they normaly are the subject, and _not_ the indirect-object (in the english
sense).
(Note, BTW, that both my german and my lingustics aren't so hot.)
-=- James Mastros
--
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the
source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger,
who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapt in awe, is as good as dead.
-=- Albert Einstein
AIM: theorbtwo homepage: http://www.rtweb.net/theorb/
