Kent M Pitman  <pitman@world.std.com> wrote:
+---------------
| I call languages that err for very few reasons "dense" and languages that
| err in many situations "sparse".  There is some value to a sparse language
| because it recognizes errors in a timely way and doesn't just turn good
| data to bad at the point of error and then continue merrily on its way.
+---------------

This is precisely why I prefer "sparse" command-line shell command sets --
because I frequently make the mouse-o blunder of accidentally pasting a
selection-buffer full of random text into a shell window. Oops!! Sparse
shell languages are (somewhat) less likely to (say) delete all your files.


-Rob

p.s. Actually, in the above case what I probably really want is a
large average Hamming distance between the shell language and the
things I typically select with the mouse. Since things I select
are typically either programs or plaintext, I guess that means I
want shell commands that look like *neither*! (Hmmm... And people
say that Unix commands are "unfriendly"... Maybe not!)

-----
Rob Warnock, 31-2-510		rpw3@sgi.com
SGI Network Engineering		<URL:http://reality.sgi.com/rpw3/>
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.		Phone: 650-933-1673
Mountain View, CA  94043	PP-ASEL-IA