http://mw.hh.se/wg211/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=WG211%2FM12Erwig 2026-04-05T20:56:50Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.43.5 http://mw.hh.se/wg211/index.php?title=WG211/M12Erwig&diff=798&oldid=prev 2013-04-22T08:01:00Z

<p>Created page with &quot;&#039;&#039;Towards Explicitness as a Language Design Criterion&#039;&#039; by Martin Erwig The specific set of features offered by a particular (programming) language is often a reflection of a (p...&quot;</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div>&#039;&#039;Towards Explicitness as a Language Design Criterion&#039;&#039; by Martin Erwig<br /> <br /> The specific set of features offered by a particular (programming) language is<br /> often a reflection of a (potentially unconcious) design decision about which<br /> aspects of the language&#039;s semantic domain are made explicit and which aspects<br /> are left implicit. Among the advantages offered by explicit representations<br /> are the promise for users to being better able to express intent, the<br /> avoidance of hidden and thus often vague and ambiguous assumptions, and the<br /> opportunity for manipulability, that is, the opportunity for transformations<br /> of all kinds. The disadvantages of explicit representations are that they lead<br /> to more complex languages with more interactions between features and thus<br /> potentially more complex semantics.<br /> <br /> In this presentation I want to draw attention to the aspect of explicitness by<br /> presenting a number of examples. I would like to start a discussion of the<br /> subject that can help to answer the following questions: (1) How can we<br /> perform cost/benefit analysis for explicit representations? (2) What obvious<br /> and not-so-obvious guidelines can we devise that could help language designers<br /> decide whether or not to make a particular language aspect explicit? (3) Can<br /> those cost/benefit analyses and guidelines employed efficaciously in the<br /> redesign of existing languages and notations?</div>

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