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From: sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Complexity of syntax
Message-ID: <2340@enea.se>
Date: 26 Dec 90 15:47:29 GMT
References: <1990Dec9.013923.14456@cs.umn.edu> <20@garth.UUCP> <27534.276e5bd3@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Organization: Enea Data AB, Sweden
Lines: 22

Also sprach Bill Kinnersley (kinnersley@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu):
>1) Functions as first-class data (most applicative languages)
>2) Arrays (mostly imperative languages)
>3) Strong type system
>there's nothing left but Algol-68 and C.

I speak neither Algol-68 nor C, but what I know of C it does not
have a very strong type system. Neither do I know what the 
requirement is to make functions as first-class data, but I 
would guess that Modula-2 and Ob(solet)eron would qualify at
least as well as C. I wouldn't say that anyone of them provides
a type system strong enough for my taste, though. By the way,
I have never understood how strong the type system is in Cobol,
but it is possible that it would qualify as well.

(A type system strong enough: a language where I can declare
types who are implemented in the same, e.g. integer, and
which are only compatible through explicit conversions.)
-- 
Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - sommar@enea.se
"There is only one success, namely to lead your life in your own way"
Anyone who can give a source for this?