What is Expressiveness in a Computer Language

[Andreas Rossberg]

David Squire wrote:
> Andreas Rossberg wrote:
> 
>> Rob Thorpe wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>>> No, that isn't what I said.  What I said was:
>>>>> "A language is latently typed if a value has a property - called it's
>>>>> type - attached to it, and given it's type it can only represent 
>>>>> values
>>>>> defined by a certain class."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "it [= a value] [...] can [...] represent values"?
>>>
>>>
>>> ???
>>
>> I just quoted, in condensed form, what you said above: namely, that a 
>> value represents values - which I find a strange and circular definition.
> 
> But you left out the most significant part: "given it's type it can only 
> represent values *defined by a certain class*" (my emphasis).

That qualification does not remove the circularity from the definition.

> In C-ish notation:
> 
>     unsigned int x;
> 
> means that x can only represent elements that are integers elements of 
> the set (class) of values [0, MAX_INT]. Negative numbers and non-integer 
> numbers are excluded, as are all sorts of other things.

I don't see how that example is relevant, since the above definition 
does not mention variables.

- Andreas