4 ms·

Niklaus Wirth wrote that the term "language" is not too fitting to computer languages and that a more precise term would be "notation".

• quickthrower2 6y ago
  I prefer language to notation because language means to me syntax and semantics, both are important to differentiate say Go and Java
  • Mikhail_Edoshin 6y ago
    And I myself prefer "notation" because with notation we tend to look at the underlying thing, not the notation :) E.g. there are different notations for chess parties, but their peculiarities are not that important, it's the party that matters.
    • vanderZwan 6y ago
      Given that words like "language" and "notation" both come with a set of expectations, I wonder if APL and similar languages that we might as well call "notation-oriented" would have become more widely adopted if we had used "programming notation"
      • Mikhail_Edoshin 6y ago
        To me that phrase of Wirth certainly opened new lines of thought. Notation is clearly a tool. One can be better than another, but there's no reason to become fascinated with the notation itself and strive to perfect the expression (e.g. to write "pythonic" code). If the notation doesn't fit the task, it's the notation that should change. And so on.