Quote: language condenses meaning; simple and expressive notation, easily understood, easily remembered

Quotation

In the construction of an engine ... for the purpose of calculating tables... I experienced great delay and inconvenience from the difficulty of ascertaining from the drawings the state of motion or rest of any individual part at any given instant of time ... I soon felt that the forms of ordinary language were far too diffuse to admit of any expectation of removing the difficulty, and being convinced from experience of the vast power which analysis derives from the great condensation of meaning in the language it employs, I was not long in deciding that the most favorable path to pursue was to have recourse to the language of signs. It then became necessary to contrive a notation which ought, if possible, to be at once simple and expressive, easily understood at the commencement, and capable of being readily retained in the memory from the proper adaptation of the signs to the circumstances they were intended to represent.   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

Additional Titles

Quote: Babbage developed a mechanical notation because his engine was too complicated

Related Topics

Topic: programming language (29 items)
Topic: history of programming (91 items)
Topic: descriptive languages (22 items)