Re: [Csnd] Time for a new tagline?

Date	2014-09-10 07:46
From	Aurelius Prochazka
Subject	Re: [Csnd] Time for a new tagline?
	+1 On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 11:47 PM, <mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca> wrote: On the Csound Web site, the title of the main page is "Csound: A C-based Audio Programming Language." That is misleading. The Csound interpreter may be written in C, but the actual Csound language does not resemble C at all. The syntax is similar only to the extent that nearly all programming languages write arithmetic expressions in more or less the same way (it would be equally accurate to call Csound "FORTRAN-based" or "Java-based" on this point); and the semantics are totally different, with several layers of implied loops fundamental to the Csound language but entirely absent from C. The confusion of C with Csound, repeated in many other placess, is not harmless. It leads people to believe that they must learn to program in C before they can use Csound, or that C programming skills they may already have will be useful in Csound - neither of which are true. C and Csound, as languages, really have very little to do with each other, and the fact that the Csound interpreter is written in C is not relevant to most users of Csound. I don't expect years' worth of ossified tradition to change just because I think it should, but would it be possible to at least change the Web site main page title to just say "Csound: An Audio Programming Language"? -- Matthew Skala mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca People before principles. http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/ Send bugs reports to https://github.com/csound/csound/issues Discussions of bugs and features can be posted here To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe csound"

Date	2014-09-10 07:47
From	mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca
Subject	[Csnd] Time for a new tagline?
	On the Csound Web site, the title of the main page is "Csound: A C-based Audio Programming Language." That is misleading. The Csound interpreter may be written in C, but the actual Csound language does not resemble C at all. The syntax is similar only to the extent that nearly all programming languages write arithmetic expressions in more or less the same way (it would be equally accurate to call Csound "FORTRAN-based" or "Java-based" on this point); and the semantics are totally different, with several layers of implied loops fundamental to the Csound language but entirely absent from C. The confusion of C with Csound, repeated in many other placess, is not harmless. It leads people to believe that they must learn to program in C before they can use Csound, or that C programming skills they may already have will be useful in Csound - neither of which are true. C and Csound, as languages, really have very little to do with each other, and the fact that the Csound interpreter is written in C is not relevant to most users of Csound. I don't expect years' worth of ossified tradition to change just because I think it should, but would it be possible to at least change the Web site main page title to just say "Csound: An Audio Programming Language"? -- Matthew Skala mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca People before principles. http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/

Date	2014-09-20 18:34
From	"Dr. Richard Boulanger"
Subject	Re: [Csnd] Time for a new tagline?
	Thanks for this excellent suggestion and discussion. We will for sure modify the tagline at Csounds.com and Csound.org. Dr.B. On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 2:47 AM, <mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca> wrote: On the Csound Web site, the title of the main page is "Csound: A C-based Audio Programming Language." That is misleading. The Csound interpreter may be written in C, but the actual Csound language does not resemble C at all. The syntax is similar only to the extent that nearly all programming languages write arithmetic expressions in more or less the same way (it would be equally accurate to call Csound "FORTRAN-based" or "Java-based" on this point); and the semantics are totally different, with several layers of implied loops fundamental to the Csound language but entirely absent from C. The confusion of C with Csound, repeated in many other placess, is not harmless. It leads people to believe that they must learn to program in C before they can use Csound, or that C programming skills they may already have will be useful in Csound - neither of which are true. C and Csound, as languages, really have very little to do with each other, and the fact that the Csound interpreter is written in C is not relevant to most users of Csound. I don't expect years' worth of ossified tradition to change just because I think it should, but would it be possible to at least change the Web site main page title to just say "Csound: An Audio Programming Language"? -- Matthew Skala mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca People before principles. http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/ Send bugs reports to https://github.com/csound/csound/issues Discussions of bugs and features can be posted here To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe csound"