3 ms·
Just to be pedantic: a GUI can have exactly the same expressive power as a language, by implementing that language, i.e. allow nesting and iteration. I realize
by 13ren 18y ago
Just to be pedantic: a GUI can have exactly the same expressive power as a language, by implementing that language, i.e. allow nesting and iteration. I realize that by "GUI", the author refers to those GUIs that we usually see, that are limited to their creator's vision, but I just needed to get that off my chest. Whew.
- herdrick 18y agoSounds interesting. How? "exactly the same expressive power" No, surely it would be less expressive in some cases, more in others.
- 13ren 18y agoWell, I said "can have exactly the same expressive power", just meaning that a GUI is not more limited than a language just because it's a GUI. Perhaps misleadingly stated :-). Specific languages and specific GUIs naturally will vary in what they can express. I was thinking mainly of buttons on a window that open instances of a window corresponding to the non-terminals on the RHS of a CFG production rule. That's the "nesting" (nesting can also represent iteration, or you can have explicit iteration in the form of lists). Extra constraints can be imposed on this CFG just as they are in a language. Example of simple arithmetic expressions (a DSL): each window has a text field, and four buttons marked with the operators +,-,* and /. You can type in a number, or click a button which opens another window with the same format and labeled with the chosen operator.