Re: What is the meaning of an expression?

> 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


In my opinion, your comments are moving this discussion in the wrong
direction. In the context of compilers: a compiler isn't in control of the
meaning of the source code input into the compiler, because the input might be
a Universal Turing Machine. The compiler knows for certain that the source
code is moving a machine from one state to another state (while not in a
terminating state: perform a state transition) while the source code is being
executed - a compiler isn't trying to answer the question of what the _final_
meanings of those state transitions are. If the compiler tried to answer such
a question, then the compiler might never stop compiling the source code. The
set of terminating states is specified by the source code, not by the
compiler.


-atom
[If you go back the the start of the thread, someone asked about
a statement that "The meaning of an expression is the value of the expression."
I suppose we could ask what it means to a compiler but that seems awfully
anthropomorphic. -John]

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