View Full Version : pataphysics
BlackShipsFillt
06-11-2008, 05:48 PM
check out this programming concept
http://www.illposed.com/philosophy/pataprogramming.html
when applied as a framework for all the data in the game it could be very interesting, especially if the game exhibited actual pataphors.
dINGLE
08-11-2008, 04:34 PM
I checked it out, but I think its way over my head :(
I get the motivation of why it would be good, but after that Im lost.
What I would like is a programming language to be almost identical to written language:
A car has four wheels.
instead of
class Car
{
Wheel[] wheels = new Wheel[4];
}
ShadowMaster
08-11-2008, 07:57 PM
What I would like is a programming language to be almost identical to written language:
A car has four wheels.
Natural language is ambiguous and very verbose. That's two things you don't want when dealing with programming. Ambiguity is bad because then the computer doesn't know what meaning to take and verbosity is bad because you spend too much time typing useless fillers.
Even if you didn't mean pure natural language, it would still be bad, because it would most likely still have the problems mentioned above. But if you have something else in mind please enlighten me ;)
dINGLE
08-11-2008, 08:13 PM
Basically my idea would be a subset of natural language,
but I know there would be many problems
I would still take verbosity over having to rethink my idea to fit how a computer works.
As for ambiguity, the compiler/translator could have an "ambiguity error", seeking some clarification.
But yes, I know it would be more complicated and probably easy to get it to do something exactly the way you would want to do it.
But maybe for someone new to programming, it would be easier to get to know how to write sentences in an accepted, unambiguous way than to learn how to program like we do.
I'm sure there are more difficulties than I can imagine, it's just an idea.
dislekcia
09-11-2008, 12:12 AM
I don't get the point of pataphysics... Maybe I simply haven't read enough about it, but I don't see where the extra info would come from to create those extra "links" in a pataphor for a game situation. It seems, wishful.
Then again logical languages like Haskell and Prolog allow you to do exactly what dingle is saying. But then you don't get easy output of graphics and all the rest of the stuff we expect from a game ;)
Ramperkash
10-11-2008, 12:30 AM
Either I don't completely understand what is being said, or they're not explaning it completely. As I read it, it can be a number of things, but I could always be wrong.
I'm pretty interested to see further explanations etc.
herman.tulleken
10-11-2008, 10:50 AM
If you want to see how pseudo-natural language system works out, check:
http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7/Download.html
It is a tool for creating interactive fiction (such as text adventure games), and it uses a formalised version of natural language. It is surprisingly hard to learn, (it's a bit like a language with hundreds of keywords...)
Ambiguity in programming language is interesting in itself. Consider for example HTML (OK, it is not a "programming" language, but you'll get my point) ~ different browsers interpret HTML differently, leading to lots of frustration for developers. But browsers also accept mal-formed HTML, which allowed many people to make HTML pages that otherwise wouldn't. How often I wished the stupid C++ compiler would just know what I mean and do it! Compilers / interpreters always make me think of zealous lawers going over a contract, instead of a cooporative agent respecting the spirit of the contract!
I must admit, I don't understand a word of the Pataphysical programming "principles" (perhaps it is itself "pataphysical" i.e. an imaginary solution [ala def on Wikipedia] ;-). A quick Google search didn't yield much more info... Anyone else found something?
Krummelz
10-11-2008, 03:49 PM
Here is something similar to what dINGLE mentioned - "A car has four wheels" -> http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/18047/?a=f (http://http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/18047/?a=f)
Rather interesting article.
dINGLE
11-11-2008, 01:52 PM
Here is something similar to what dINGLE mentioned - "A car has four wheels" -> http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/18047/?a=f (http://http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/18047/?a=f)
Rather interesting article.
The only thing I see on the other side of that link is adverts, sure it's the right one?
EDIT: never mind, www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/18047/?a=f works
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