On Tue, 28 Sep 2004, Steve Thatcher wrote:
> when someone can pick up a logic description and understand it WITHOUT
> having to figure out what each sytmbol means in the context of the
> usage, then it is simply more understandable. If I picked up something
> that had two binary numbers wiht a PLUS sign inbetween, I would not
> assume that it meant OR, only if you would dig further does the PLUS
> sign make sense. If you simply said OR, then there is no confusion and
> it is self documenting. I think Sellam was trying to make this point
> with regards to symbology.
Right. What I was getting at is that there were plenty of other symbols
on the typewriter or keypunch to choose from.
Having gotten the explanation as to why those operations were chosen, it
does make sense and is somewhat elegant (I'll reluctantly concede), but
it's still stupid as far as I'm concerned. Why didn't they use * or X
for AND then?
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Tue Sep 28 2004 - 11:41:36 BST