From rob@twcny.rr.com Fri Dec 21 23:41:19 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: rob@twcny.rr.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_1_3); 22 Dec 2001 07:41:19 -0000 Received: (qmail 9860 invoked from network); 22 Dec 2001 07:41:19 -0000 Received: from unknown (216.115.97.167) by m2.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 22 Dec 2001 07:41:19 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mailout6.nyroc.rr.com) (24.92.226.177) by mta1.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 22 Dec 2001 07:41:19 -0000 Received: from mail1.twcny.rr.com (mail1-0 [24.92.226.74]) by mailout6.nyroc.rr.com (8.11.6/Road Runner 1.12) with ESMTP id fBM7fI811542 for ; Sat, 22 Dec 2001 02:41:18 -0500 (EST) Received: from riff ([24.92.246.4]) by mail1.twcny.rr.com (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-59787U250000L250000S0V35) with ESMTP id com for ; Sat, 22 Dec 2001 02:41:17 -0500 Received: from rob by riff with local (Exim 3.33 #1 (Debian)) id 16HglD-0000Xh-00 for ; Sat, 22 Dec 2001 02:39:59 -0500 Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2001 02:39:59 -0500 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Binary Language Message-ID: <20011222073959.GA1993@twcny.rr.com> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.24i X-Is-It-Not-Nifty: www.sluggy.com From: Rob Speer Reply-To: rob@twcny.rr.com X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=2572649 X-Yahoo-Profile: squeekybobo X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 12671 On Sat, Dec 22, 2001 at 05:58:17AM -0000, thinkit41 wrote: > Well I put together a rough draft of the binary language I was > talking about. http://home.earthlink.net/~thinkyad/bl.txt . > > The lojban influences should seem obvious. I think with careful > choice of idea words, I can already represent lojban with this syntax. > > Any comments? It's like you took Plan B and mixed it with HP49 Basic [1], put the whole thing in a Terminology Mixmaster (TM) and pulled out random chunks which you then presented to us in this document. On the whole your document makes about as much sense, and relies as much on undefined terms, as your "meaning of life". Your grammar is entirely incomprehensible, seeing as you made up the notation as you went along and didn't explain it anywhere. One part I can almost comprehend is the bit about parentheses - but: what would it mean to put one item in parentheses? Or three? Since you intend to group things so that one thing modifies one other thing, how can n be anything other than 2? But don't think of that as the most significant problem, because the rest is just random ill-thought-out babbling. Let me quote: "An operator is one or more idea words. It can be paired with one or more idea words to form a list." So, an operator is made of words, and a list is made of one operator and some words. Did you intend this asymmetry in the definition of a list? You describe how the words modify each other in a list. You don't describe how the operator is modified. You also don't describe how the words modify each other in the operator. I get the feeling that 'operator' and 'list' are actually supposed to be synonymous, in which case there was no reason to define 'list' at all, let alone define it incorrectly. Later on you interject random words like "standard derived". I don't think this language could ever be used for any actual communication, given your inability to even communicate the description of the language. Perhaps, though, it could find a niche for usage, such as enabling you to talk back to the voices in your head. Have a nice day. [1] HP49 Basic is a programming language for the HP49 calculator which serves no purpose except to mollify people who want to program the calculator yet have a morbid fear of Reverse Polish Notation. It is the same as the calculator's RPN language, except rewritten with functions, parentheses, and infix operators, with some arbitrary notation added on to fake the existence of a stack. I am reminded of this by Thinkit's after-the-fact "parentheses". -- la rab.spir noi pujeca djagau fi le zunsnu