Naming the Mathematica language
- To: mathgroup at yoda.physics.unc.edu
- Subject: Naming the Mathematica language
- From: rlj-nbg at infohh.rmi.de (R.L. Jakschewitz)
- Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1993 20:34:20 MET
During the 1993 Mathematica Day in Frankfurt/Germany, Stephen Wolfram
mentioned WRI's intention of making the programming language contained
in Mathematica a stand-alone product. Since WRI has not yet decided on a
name for this split-off product, we as the users of Mathematica
could try to help naming the new child :-)
To start off this strain of discussion, here's my suggestion:
Name: Harmony
Semantic background:
- harmony between various programming paradigms
As Stephen Wolfram said in his DDJ interview: (...) the trick is
to put in those paradigms in such a way that the edges fit together
properly, so that you can move easily from one paradigm to another.
So you can have pure functions and have them interact with
transformation rules and interactive procedural programming and so on,
and have a fairly seamless interface. (...)
- harmony between programmer's/author's way of thinking and the way and
form of expressing these thoughts in Mathematica
By offering multiple ways of synonymous representations P by providing
several paradigms as well as various 'word orders' and styles P
Mathematica allows its user to apply to programming tasks techniques of
expression acquired in natural languages, t.ex. stressing the aspect
of sequential (left to right) evaluation by using the postfix operator,
or adding an afterthought (postfix operator again) to a more complex
expression made up of different operator structure.
Any other ideas?
-rlj
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