overloading the whitespace operator

My friend Martin sent me this through email: A paper by Bjarne Stroustroup on overloading the whitespace operator in C++. It would allow expressions such as z = x y instead of z = x * y and other interesting and (incredibly useful!) applications. Most interesting of all is the impact of this new operator on non-ASCII character sets, and the final recommendations they make for implementing it, near the end, so that it can be useful in 3D display devices. A must read.

Chris then sent another, more current (from this year) effort in this direction: the Whitespace programming language:

Most modern programming languages do not consider white space characters (spaces, tabs and newlines) syntax, ignoring them, as if they weren't there. Whitespace is a language that seeks to redress the balance. Any non whitespace characters are ignored; only spaces, tabs and newlines are considered syntax.

do you trust microsoft?

An article from News.com:

Three-fourths of software security experts at major companies do not believe Microsoft's products are secure, according to a new survey from Forrester Research.

9/12

This week salon is publishing excerpts from a book called "After: How America Confronted the September 12 Era" by Steven Brill. Looks very good, judging from the first in the series.

keegan on the war

[via Chris]: John Keegan, the famous military historian, is running a series of articles on The Telegraph analyzing the war. Here is the latest one. The full list can be obtained by going to the main page of The Telegraph and running a search for "Keegan". Recommended.