Forwarded message:

From: Mark Rogaski <wendigo@ne-wendigo.jabberwock.org> Subject: Re: Orthogonal (fwd) Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 01:36:06 -0500 (EST)

An entity claiming to be Jim Choate wrote:

: I can see the union 'build complicated things out of basic building blocks' : and the use of Occam's Razor (I'm as lazy as any other programmer) but fail : to see how this maps to anything relating to the concept of orthogonal. : Which clearly doesn't have any inherent minimalist cast. :

Minimalism is merely a by-product of orthogonality.

Which orthogonality are you speaking of?

A language is considered orthogonal if builtin functions do not provide overlapping functionality.

Are you talking linguistics, philosophy, or computer? Consider, historicaly the point of 'orthogonality' was to indicate a *non-overlapping* or reducable structure, something which provides a reference to evaluate other things.

So the term orthogonal probably refers to the fact that there is no point of intersection in the functionality of the language (or system, as the thread started out).

Orthogonal implies there is intersection, it's hard to have a closed geometric shape (-gonal) or a right angle (ortho-) axis system without them.

And I will not argue about vector spaces until I get bookshelves and actually dig my Linear Algebra texts out of the boxes around my apartment.

Good, I understand how it is used in vector spaces and don't really get my jollies off on arguing on unrelated issues. What I *would* like to know is how a mathematical term related to geometry and right angles got expanded *historicaly* to mean something completely unrelated. I don't think a linear algebra book is relevant to this question, despite the protestations of the techno-masturbatory ot the contrary. There are a whole host of users on this list who live by strawman arguments. I am glad to see you aren't one of them (apparently). ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there | | be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. | | | | -Alan Greenspan- | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage@ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|