Bitching about the documentation...

[Christopher Subich]

Steven D'Aprano wrote:

> S
> P
> O
> I
> L
> E
> R
>  
> S
> P
> A
> C
> E
> 
> 
> 
> "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."
> 
> Buffalo from the city of Buffalo, which are intimidated by buffalo
> from Buffalo, also intimidate buffalo from Buffalo.

And to do a small simplification on it, to illustrate just how painful 
that sentence really is, the semantically equivalent version:

N = buffalo from Buffalo

(N [that] N buffalo) buffalo N.

The dropping of the [that] is legal, if sometimes ambiguous, in English.

> I didn't say it was *good* English, but it is *legal* English.

Which is why natural language programming's never going to take off. :)