My Favourite Toy Language

(jargon, language)(MFTL) Describes a talk on a programming language design that is heavy on syntax (with lots ofBNF), sometimes even talks about semantics (e.g. type systems), but rarely, if ever, has any content (seecontent-free). More broadly applied to talks - even whenthe topic is not a programming language --- in which thesubject matter is gone into in unnecessary and meticulousdetail at the sacrifice of any conceptual content. "Well, itwas a typical MFTL talk".

2. A language about which the developers are passionate (oftento the point of prosyletic zeal) but no one else cares about.Applied to the language by those outside the originatinggroup. "He cornered me about type resolution in his MFTL."

The first great goal in the mind of the designer of an MFTL isusually to write a compiler for it, then bootstrap the designaway from contamination by lesser languages by writing acompiler for it in itself. Thus, the standard put-downquestion at an MFTL talk is "Has it been used for anythingbesides its own compiler?". On the other hand, a languagethat *cannot* be used to write its own compiler is beneathcontempt.

Doug McIlroy once proposed a test of the generality andutility of a language and the operating system under whichit is compiled: "Is the output of a Fortran programacceptable as input to the Fortran compiler?" In other words,can you write programs that write programs? Alarming numbersof (language, OS) pairs fail this test, particularly when thelanguage is Fortran. Aficionados are quick to point out thatUnix (even using Fortran) passes it handily. That the testcould ever be failed is only surprising to those who have hadthe good fortune to have worked only under modern systemswhich lack OS-supported and -imposed "file types".

See break-even point, toolsmith.

单词	my favourite toy language
释义	My Favourite Toy Language My Favourite Toy Language (jargon, language)(MFTL) Describes a talk on a programming language design that is heavy on syntax (with lots ofBNF), sometimes even talks about semantics (e.g. type systems), but rarely, if ever, has any content (seecontent-free). More broadly applied to talks - even whenthe topic is not a programming language --- in which thesubject matter is gone into in unnecessary and meticulousdetail at the sacrifice of any conceptual content. "Well, itwas a typical MFTL talk". 2. A language about which the developers are passionate (oftento the point of prosyletic zeal) but no one else cares about.Applied to the language by those outside the originatinggroup. "He cornered me about type resolution in his MFTL." The first great goal in the mind of the designer of an MFTL isusually to write a compiler for it, then bootstrap the designaway from contamination by lesser languages by writing acompiler for it in itself. Thus, the standard put-downquestion at an MFTL talk is "Has it been used for anythingbesides its own compiler?". On the other hand, a languagethat cannot be used to write its own compiler is beneathcontempt. Doug McIlroy once proposed a test of the generality andutility of a language and the operating system under whichit is compiled: "Is the output of a Fortran programacceptable as input to the Fortran compiler?" In other words,can you write programs that write programs? Alarming numbersof (language, OS) pairs fail this test, particularly when thelanguage is Fortran. Aficionados are quick to point out thatUnix (even using Fortran) passes it handily. That the testcould ever be failed is only surprising to those who have hadthe good fortune to have worked only under modern systemswhich lack OS-supported and -imposed "file types". See break-even point, toolsmith.
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