12 Jan
2022
12 Jan
'22
3:49 a.m.
Been reading the heirloom docs. Remember one thing that I disliked
about troff which maybe Doug can explain. It's the language in the
docs. I never understood "interpolating a register" to have any
relation to the definition of interpolate that I learned in math.
Made it a bit hard to learn initially.
Any memory of why that term was used?
12 Jan
12 Jan
11:38 a.m.
New subject: TeX and groff (was: roff(7))
Hi Jon,
I never understood "interpolating a
register" to have any relation to
the definition of interpolate that I learned in math.
The first definition makes sense of it:
1. (transitive, intransitive) To introduce (something) between other
things; especially to insert (possibly spurious) words into a text.
in verse 74, the second line is clearly interpolated
2. (mathematics) To estimate the value of a function between two
tabulated points.
3. (computing) During the course of processing some data, and in
response to a directive in that data, to fetch data from a different
source and process it in-line along with the original data.
― https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/interpolate
--
Cheers, Ralph.
6:53 p.m.
New subject: TeX and groff (was: roff(7))
Ralph Corderoy writes:
Hi Jon,
Yeah, I looked it up too. Yes, the argument can be made that one of the
definitions can be forced to sort of fit; I'm guessing that #3 didn't
exist when troff was written. So I'm gonna stick to my point that using
that word is awkward and makes the document a bit harder to understand.
Especially in the context of programming languages, of which troff is one.
To the best of my knowledge, nobody talks about "a = b;" as interpolating b.
I never understood "interpolating a
register" to have any relation to
the definition of interpolate that I learned in math.
The first definition makes sense of it:
1. (transitive, intransitive) To introduce (something) between other
things; especially to insert (possibly spurious) words into a text.
in verse 74, the second line is clearly interpolated
2. (mathematics) To estimate the value of a function between two
tabulated points.
3. (computing) During the course of processing some data, and in
response to a directive in that data, to fetch data from a different
source and process it in-line along with the original data.
― https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/interpolate
--
Cheers, Ralph. 
7:27 p.m.
New subject: TeX and groff (was: roff(7))
At 2022-01-12T09:53:28-0800, Jon Steinhart wrote:
Ralph Corderoy writes:
> > I never understood "interpolating a register" to have any relation
> > to the definition of interpolate that I learned in math.
>
> The first definition makes sense of it:
>
> 1. (transitive, intransitive) To introduce (something) between
> other things; especially to insert (possibly spurious) words
> into a text.
>
> in verse 74, the second line is clearly interpolated
[...]
Yeah, I looked it up too. Yes, the argument can be
made that one of
the definitions can be forced to sort of fit; I'm guessing that #3
didn't exist when troff was written. So I'm gonna stick to my point
that using that word is awkward and makes the document a bit harder to
understand. Especially in the context of programming languages, of
which troff is one. To the best of my knowledge, nobody talks about
"a = b;" as interpolating b.
I've found the term highly useful and have greatly increased its usage
in groff documentation. (I have been a stickler for a disciplined
lexicon in every software project I've been involved in.)
I prefer it to a popular alternative, "expansion", which is
misleading--especially to novices, who then make the reasonable
assumption, given the everyday meaning of that word, that whatever
results from the process will be larger in some sense than what was
there before.
An argument could be made for the word "replacement", but I've found it
useful to reserve that plain-spoken term for discussion of things a
human might do (perhaps in the course of editing a document or
developing a macro). To my ear, "interpolation" sounds fancy enough to
refer to something you let a machine do, without being _excessively_
technical in tone.
Regards,
Branden
8:02 p.m.
New subject: TeX and groff (was: roff(7))
On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 1:27 PM G. Branden Robinson <
g.branden.robinson(a)gmail.com> wrote:
An argument could be made for the word "replacement", but I've found it
useful to reserve that plain-spoken term for
discussion of things a
human might do (perhaps in the course of editing a document or
developing a macro). To my ear, "interpolation" sounds fancy enough to
refer to something you let a machine do, without being _excessively_
technical in tone.
Strictly speaking, what is interpolated is the _contents_ of the register,
not the register itself. It never hurts to be too clear.
1041
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4 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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G. Branden Robinson -
John Cowan -
Jon Steinhart -
Ralph Corderoy