Re: OT: Language War (Re: "C" Manual)

[Richard Cobbe <cobbe@airmail.net>]

Lo, on Monday, January 7, dman did write:

> I've just come up with a good description of what a 'type' is :
>     A "type" is the set of all valid values.

*DING*DING*DING*DING*DING*DING*

Got it in one.  Types are sets of values.  That's all.  C, C++, and Java
provide a fairly limited language for describing these values, but types
are sets of values.  (I'm using, and I suspect dman is as well, `set' in
the mathematical sense as an unordered collection of objects.)

> Have you read "The Hobbit"?  Do you remember what Treebeard told Bilbo
> about his name?

(Actually it was _The Two Towers_, and it was Merry & Pippin, not Bilbo,
but it's still a good analogy.  <grin>)

Richard