Re: What is the meaning of an expression?

From	Jan Ziak <0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.compilers
Subject	Re: What is the meaning of an expression?
Date	2022-01-17 15:45 -0800
Organization	Compilers Central
Message-ID	<22-01-066@comp.compilers> (permalink)
References	<AdgJPKhi/NiNfECvRNaA6+4Wq/M8OQ==> <22-01-052@comp.compilers> <22-01-060@comp.compilers>

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On Sunday, January 16, 2022 at 6:27:58 PM UTC+1, Jan Ziak wrote:
> On Friday, January 14, 2022 at 6:40:24 PM UTC+1, Roger L Costello wrote:
> > For example, the meaning of this expression:
> >
> > 1 + 1
> >
> > is 2.
>
> The meaning of 1+1 is a transition between two states. ....
>
> -atom
> [We seem to be pretty deep in this tarpit now. -John]

@John It's not about a tarpit. If a person believes that the [only] meaning of
1+1 is 2 then it increases the probability that the person does not know about
modulo arithmetic: (1+1 mod 2) is 0. Thus, it is better to adopt the more
general viewpoint that the meaning of an expression is a transition between
two [machine] states. A next concern is the complexity of those states.

-atom
[Now we're even deeper in the tarpit.  Is the "meaning" a mathematical statement,
an instruction to a compiler to generate code computing the value of an expression,
something else?  I don't know, and it's pretty clear none of the rest of us do either.
-John]

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Thread

What is the meaning of an expression? Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org> - 2022-01-14 12:15 +0000
  Re: What is the meaning of an expression? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2022-01-14 18:20 +0000
  Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@netscape.net> - 2022-01-15 00:28 +0100
  Re: What is the meaning of an expression? gah4 <gah4@u.washington.edu> - 2022-01-14 17:58 -0800
  Re: What is the meaning of an expression? George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2022-01-15 02:05 -0500
  Re: What is the meaning of an expression? "matt.ti...@gmail.com" <matt.timmermans@gmail.com> - 2022-01-15 06:21 -0800
    Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2022-02-03 12:50 +0000
  Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Jan Ziak <0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com> - 2022-01-16 07:44 -0800
    Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Jan Ziak <0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com> - 2022-01-17 15:45 -0800
      Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Jan Ziak <0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com> - 2022-01-18 10:03 -0800
        Re: What is the meaning of an expression? gah4 <gah4@u.washington.edu> - 2022-01-18 15:18 -0800
          Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@netscape.net> - 2022-01-19 11:54 +0100
            Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Jan Ziak <0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com> - 2022-01-19 09:17 -0800
              Re: What is the meaning of an expression? gah4 <gah4@u.washington.edu> - 2022-01-19 14:03 -0800
              Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@netscape.net> - 2022-01-20 13:02 +0100
                Re: What is the meaning of an expression? dave_thompson_2@comcast.net - 2022-01-30 22:51 -0500
            Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Christopher F Clark <christopher.f.clark@compiler-resources.com> - 2022-01-19 20:13 +0200
              Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> - 2022-01-22 20:46 +0000
  Re: What is the meaning of an expression? Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> - 2022-01-19 20:51 +0000

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