P1788 1.8 "Language considerations"
I have two comments concerning §1.8:
1. Its first paragraph is:
All relevant languages are based on the concepts of data and
transformations. In Von Neumann languages, data are held in
variables, which are transformed by assignment. In functional
languages, input data are supplied as arguments; the transformed
form is returned as results. Dataflow languages vary considerably,
but use some form of the data and transformation approach.
Actually this is not quite true or not well formulated, IMHO. In
Von Neumann languages, one also has control. In functional languages,
one can also return functions, which are not just a transformation
of the inputs, but also depend on the context (notion of closure).
I think that what really matters is that all languages can incorporate
the dataflow model, even though they can do more. The first sentence
could be changed to something like:
All relevant languages use, among others, the concepts of data and
transformations.
2. The second paragraph seems to be about the approximation of real
arithmetic. But in P1788, intervals can be used for other things,
such as range computation.
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Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@xxxxxxxxxx> - Web: <http://www.vinc17.net/>
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Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)