BitOBear:
Your uses of definition and declaration match those
of the C language definition. The definitions of other languages differ. Even
among other FORTRAN-class languages, declaration might not be used: a
FORTRAN definition is, IIRC, an assignment. It's not clear to me whether
even FORTRAN's definition uses the word declaration.
IIRC, COBOL-class
languages don't use declaration in their definitions.
Early
ALGOL-class language definitions used declaration, but not
definition.
The Pascal definition uses both terms, but with meanings
that are distinctly different from those in the C-language definition. A Pascal
definition is for something static, like a type or a constant. A Pascal
declaration is for something dynamic, like a variable or a function,
which comes into being during execution.
I haven't dug into the definitions
of C++ and Java, so I can't speak to their uses of these words. A brief
examination of the Java Language Specification showed me no uses of
definition, but plenty of uses of declaration. A Java
declaration is much more like a Pascal (ALGOL-class) declaration
than a C declaration.
So many distinct concepts, so few
words.
--- --Bill. NAL: question the answers, especially mine. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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