- From: Liam R E Quin <liam@w3.org>
- Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:47:58 -0500
- To: François REMY <francois.remy.dev@outlook.com>
- Cc: "Tab Atkins Jr." <jackalmage@gmail.com>, Brian Kardell <bkardell@gmail.com>, "www-style@w3.org" <www-style@w3.org>
On Mon, 2013-02-11 at 22:06 +0100, François REMY wrote: > [...]The var() notation is a *reference* or a *data binding* to a > custom property, in no case a "variable". In the programming language > world, a variable is a box referencable statically via a memory > address relative to the stack. When you reference something > dynamically this is not a variable, this is a property, because it's > relative to a heap address, the address of the object where the data > belong. > I maintain that calling var() a variable is a mistake. The declarative and functional programming communities have used "variable" in the sense of mathematics, since the 1960s, and still use the word that way. In algebra, saying, x = y + z x = x + 1 is a nonsense. It's not about memory addresses or stacks or heaps, and it's not about compile-time or runtime. Having said that, it's a common cause of confusion - we get it in XSLT and XQuery too, which use mathematical-style variables. User-Defined Properties might be easier for people to grok. Liam -- Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/ Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/ Ankh: irc.sorcery.net irc.gnome.org freenode/#xml The barefoot typographer.
Received on Monday, 11 February 2013 21:48:01 UTC