On the evolution of unnatural language

Les Hatton

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-21338-0_21

On the evolution of unnatural language

Les Hatton

Kingston University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Abstract

A search of the web reveals that natural language is considered to be language which a human would consider natural and unnatural language is language a human would consider artificial. This clearly raises interpretation questions and plenty of leeway so I am going to take the latter view here and bend it somewhat to consider programming languages as particularly good examples of unnatural language.

Programming languages are something like 60 years old. Their evolution tells us much about the triumph of creativity over parsimony; the need for diversity and the frequent triumph of politics over common sense or logic. Yet their minimum set of features is defined by the beauty and simplicity of the Böhm-Jacopini theorem [1] and their underlying similarity in information theoretic terms is shown in the theorem proved by myself in [3],[4].

This essay is a reflection on programming languages both old and new, engineering, systems evolution and the role of education.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe
Subtitle of host publication	16th Ada-Europe International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies, Edinburgh, UK, June 20-24, 2011. Proceedings
Editors	A. Romanovsky, T. Vardanega
Place of Publication	Berlin, Germany
Publisher	Springer
Pages	219-225
Number of pages	7
Volume	6652
ISBN (Electronic)	9783642213380
ISBN (Print)	9783642213373
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21338-0_21
Publication status	Published - Jun 2011
Externally published	Yes
Event	16th Ada-Europe International conference on Reliable Software Technologies - Edinburgh, U.K. Duration: 20 Jun 2011 → 24 Jun 2011

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher	Springer
Volume	6652
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	16th Ada-Europe International conference on Reliable Software Technologies
Period	20/06/11 → 24/06/11

Keywords

Computer science and informatics

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-642-21338-0_21

Cite this

Hatton, L. (2011). On the evolution of unnatural language. In A. Romanovsky, & T. Vardanega (Eds.), Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe: 16th Ada-Europe International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies, Edinburgh, UK, June 20-24, 2011. Proceedings (Vol. 6652, pp. 219-225). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 6652). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21338-0_21

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title = "On the evolution of unnatural language",

abstract = "A search of the web reveals that natural language is considered to be language which a human would consider natural and unnatural language is language a human would consider artificial. This clearly raises interpretation questions and plenty of leeway so I am going to take the latter view here and bend it somewhat to consider programming languages as particularly good examples of unnatural language. Programming languages are something like 60 years old. Their evolution tells us much about the triumph of creativity over parsimony; the need for diversity and the frequent triumph of politics over common sense or logic. Yet their minimum set of features is defined by the beauty and simplicity of the B{\"o}hm-Jacopini theorem [1] and their underlying similarity in information theoretic terms is shown in the theorem proved by myself in [3],[4]. This essay is a reflection on programming languages both old and new, engineering, systems evolution and the role of education.",

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Hatton, L 2011, On the evolution of unnatural language. in A Romanovsky & T Vardanega (eds), Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe: 16th Ada-Europe International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies, Edinburgh, UK, June 20-24, 2011. Proceedings. vol. 6652, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 6652, Springer, Berlin, Germany, pp. 219-225, 16th Ada-Europe International conference on Reliable Software Technologies, 20/06/11. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21338-0_21

On the evolution of unnatural language. / Hatton, Les.
Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe: 16th Ada-Europe International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies, Edinburgh, UK, June 20-24, 2011. Proceedings. ed. / A. Romanovsky; T. Vardanega. Vol. 6652 Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2011. p. 219-225 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 6652).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AB - A search of the web reveals that natural language is considered to be language which a human would consider natural and unnatural language is language a human would consider artificial. This clearly raises interpretation questions and plenty of leeway so I am going to take the latter view here and bend it somewhat to consider programming languages as particularly good examples of unnatural language. Programming languages are something like 60 years old. Their evolution tells us much about the triumph of creativity over parsimony; the need for diversity and the frequent triumph of politics over common sense or logic. Yet their minimum set of features is defined by the beauty and simplicity of the Böhm-Jacopini theorem [1] and their underlying similarity in information theoretic terms is shown in the theorem proved by myself in [3],[4]. This essay is a reflection on programming languages both old and new, engineering, systems evolution and the role of education.

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Hatton L. On the evolution of unnatural language. In Romanovsky A, Vardanega T, editors, Reliable Software Technologies - Ada-Europe: 16th Ada-Europe International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies, Edinburgh, UK, June 20-24, 2011. Proceedings. Vol. 6652. Berlin, Germany: Springer. 2011. p. 219-225. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science). doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-21338-0_21

On the evolution of unnatural language

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