🚀 go-pugleaf

There have been a couple of rather  misleading  postings  implying  that
Gofer  is  effectively  a  public domain replacement for Miranda(TM).  I
wish to claim a right of reply on Miranda's behalf.

First - a minor point - Gofer is not public domain.  As anyone  who  has
the  Gofer software will see from the header files, it is copyright Mark
Jones, 1992.  Mark Jones chooses to allow it be freely  distributed  for
personal  and  academic use - along with the copyright notice specifying
the terms of the distribution.  That is not the same as being PD.

Second, Gofer and Miranda don't do anything like the same job.  Gofer is
a Haskell subset, and thus a different language. Also each has important
features the  other  lacks:  Gofer  has  typeclasses,  but  Miranda  has
abstract data types, a module system, and an on-line manual.

Gofer is a nice system, and I don't wish to criticise it.  But here  are
some advantages of Miranda:-

1) Miranda is widely used for teaching in conjunction with the excellent
textbook by Bird and Wadler.  The notation in Bird and Wadler is closely
based on Miranda (and quite a  lot  different  from  Gofer,  which  uses
Haskell syntax).

2) High quality arithmetic.  The Miranda type `num' is a  dynamic  union
of double precision floating point and unbounded precision integer (like
LISP bignums).  Gofer has 32bit arithmetic,  and  silently  gives  wrong
answers on overflow.

3) Miranda has  abstract  data  types  and  a  powerful  module  system,
including  "parameterised modules".  There is a fully automated built-in
`make' feature, so object files cannot get out  of  step  with  sources.
(Gofer has no equivalent features.)

4) Miranda is a robust and mature  system,  running  at  more  than  500
sites.   It was awarded a medal for technical achievement by the British
Computer Society (BCS Awards, 1990).  It is an interpreter (like  gofer)
but a compiler is preparation.

Miranda is commercial software -  ie  not  free  -  but  has  relatively
inexpensive  educational  licenses.  For example the (USA only) price of
an educational site license, covering an unlimited number of machines of
one type, is $1360.

I will be happy to supply further information on request  (or  from  the
coordinates below).

David Turner
(Director, Research Software Ltd)
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