Re: OT: PL/I was Re: Please welcome . . .

--- Alex Fink <a4pq1injbok_0@...> wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 09:47:56 -0800, Gary Shannon
> <fiziwig@...> wrote:
>
> >An interesting idea.  I did try, about 3 or 4 years
> >ago, to design an RPN (Reverse Polish Notation)
> >conlang inspired by the Forth programming language.
<snip>

> Furthermore, I actually started to sketch a
> stack-based conlang about 17
> days ago, but I've abandoned it already.  The only
> things that could go on
> the stack were predicates, very much like Lojbanic
> bridi.  For 'I have a
> green mouse' (which is the closest I can get to 'I
> have a red book' with my
>  minimal vocab), we could say this.
>
> ?\íri kíle  ja dZóvu   na  ja:
> mouse green    possess 1sg
Slightly off topic, but this made me wonder about
saying something like "I have a kloyn mouse."  The
reader, of course, has no idea whatsoever what "kloyn"
might mean.

To facilitate comprehension perhaps a langauge should
include explicit mention of the nature of a modifier
like "green" or "kloyn," as in "I have a mouse of
color green," or "I have a mouse of color kloyn."  Now
we still may not know which color the word "kloyn"
refers to, but at least we now know that it is a color
word, and not a description of its personality or the
size of its bank account.

Representing it in object oriented computer-style
functional notation:

class ObjectType
{
   ColorRef myColor;
   method: ColorOf( ColorRef value )
   {
      // Assert the color of this object
      myColor = value;
   }
}
// generic object which can have an
// inventory of objects contained or
// possessed
class Container : ObjectType
{
   ObjectType * myList;
   method: Have( ObjectType item )
   {
      // assert possesion of item
      myList.AddTo( item );
   }
}

Container me;
ObjectType mouse;

me.Have( mouse.ColorOf( kloyn ));


where "me" is an object which has the method "Have"
whose function is to assert that it's argument is in
the inventory of the object.  "mouse" is an object
which has the method "ColorOf" which asserts that the
color of the object is that which is specified by its
argument.

In object oriented modified FORTH-style semi-RPN:

kloyn color_of mouse have I.
green color_of mouse have you.
assorted color_of mouse have we.

But that takes us down a whole different path...

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