[External] : Re: basic conceptual model

[John Rose]

On 13 Dec 2021, at 19:05, Kevin Bourrillion wrote:

> …
> Yes, in general I am sure that I can't accomplish actual ground up
> non-cyclical definition-definitions here. I think it should suffice to be
> descriptive enough for the reader to course-correct their previous notions
> in this direction (provided they want to).

Yup, I see that’s how it’s working in there.
>
>
>> Saying “unit” is more mysterious.  You certainly don’t mean units of
>> measure, or functional programming unit types.  Are you meaning to imply
>> that it has no subparts which might also be termed units?
>
>
> Oh, I actually do not want to imply irreducibility at all. That all values
> have had that property in Java is a fact I would label as
> incidental-not-essential.,
>
> Glob, gob, blob, hunk, chunk, piece, .....

In that case I claim unit has the wrong connotation, since it does (often) come with an expectation of irreducibility.  With that in mind I like the unassuming term “piece”, or those other words.  If you are still in thesaurus mode:

https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/portion

>
>
>
>> That’s OK as long as you have today’s primitives (which I like to call
>> “scalar primitives”) and of course references (which are also scalars).  By
>> “scalar” I mean an item of data that is not composed of further scalars.
>>
>
> A tangent, but there's enough math major still in me to object to this. :-)
> Scalars are scalar because they scale things! This would be more similar to
> a one-dimensional vector space than to a scalar....  imho the best
> adjective for today's primitives is "primitive" and I'll plead my case
> about that soon too. :-)

Sure, that’s a good position for math majors like you and me.  And I’m sure you/they/we really squirm in the presence of discussions about “vector processing units” and “vector ISAs”.  But the squirm-worthy folks that define VPUs also use the term “scalar” to mean “the value that’s in a vector lane”, and they assuredly do not mean that “scalar” can be identified with “single-lane vector”.