Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!bloom-beacon!gatech!hubcap!billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu
From: billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe,2847,)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: What is the origin of `pragma'
Message-ID: <5937@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Date: 6 Jul 89 16:55:52 GMT
References: <15896@vail.ICO.ISC.COM>
Sender: news@hubcap.clemson.edu
Reply-To: billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu
Lines: 15

From rcd@ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn):
> fmoore@skvax1.csc.ti.com (Freeman Moore [214]995-1901) writes:
>>    Why was the word `pragma' selected?
> ALGOL 68 has a construct called a "pragmat" with very similar usage. 

    Nevertheless, it's not a very intuitively appealing keyword;
    most people learning Ada don't say "Ah, yes, from the Latin..."
    (or whatever)... rather, it's a counter-intuitive thing to be
    memorized.

    We simply want to give some directive to the compiler, so probably 
    something along the lines of "Compiler:" would be a better choice! 


    Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu