Re: Authoritative Definition of "Descriptive Language"

[Mark . Burgess]

Hi Steve, I don't know of any authoratative definitions, no. I tend
to use them interchangeably about cfengine, because it certainly fits
both descriptions. If we take the literal English meaning, then a descriptove
language is one that offers descriptions of something (e.g. a configuration)
whereas a declarative language is one that does whatever it does by
declaration alone (no imperative constructions, all parameters to standard 
methods).
There is an obvious overlap. I think the main thing for your paper is
to define clearly what *you* mean by the terms,

Mark


On 28 Jul, Steve Traugott wrote:
> Hi All!
> 
> I have a silly (slightly embarrassing) question, for an upcoming LISA
> paper -- does anyone know of any authoritative (computer science)
> definition of the term "Descriptive Language"?  
> 
> Mark, you usually seem to equate "descriptive" with "declarative".
> For example:
> 
>       http://www.iu.hio.no/~mark/research/immune/AIdrift/AIdrift.html
>       http://www.cfengine.org/docs/cfengine-1.6.3.Reference.html
>       http://www.geocrawler.com/archives/3/374/2001/3/0/5358475/
> 
> I've found others who do the same.  For example:
> 
>       http://crl.nmsu.edu/expedition/publications/boas-acl99.pdf
> 
> These terms seem to be freely interchangeable in CS usage, but I
> haven't yet found any explicit text saying so -- is the current usage
> still that fuzzy?  Does anyone see any problem with me explicitly
> equating them in a refereed paper?  Feel free to forward this to your
> favorite linguistics list...  ;-)
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Steve



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Work: +47 22453272            Email:  Mark.Burgess@iu.hio.no
Fax : +47 22453205            WWW  :  http://www.iu.hio.no/~mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~