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 What makes language X special?
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wtd




PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 6:57 pm   Post subject: What makes language X special?

This is an open question for anyone to answer.

Think about it for a little while. What makes one of the programming languages you know and use special? What sets it apart?

If not a language, what makes a particular environment in which you program special?
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Cervantes




PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:49 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

WRT Ruby, efficiency.

I want to do as little work as I can in accomplishing a certain task.

Note that this is not the same as having a massive library that does almost everything for me. There's nothing (much) wrong with that, but it means I have to learn that massive library, which isn't a very efficient use of my time.

Rather, I want to use blocks to customize such methods as "inject" to suit my needs. Making a method to do every possible variation of the "inject block" is highly inefficient, and quite likely impossible. On the other hand, forcing the programmer to take many steps to tailor that "inject" method is also inefficient.

I like blocks. Smile
wtd




PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:55 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

So you'd say it's a matter of compromising between a powerful language that tries to do everything with specialized additions to the language itself, and a language that tries to do very little with its core language, instead leaving everything to the library?
Flikerator




PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 9:18 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

Id say turing is the best language because its so simple, and there is so little you need to acomplish a specif goal. You can do a lot more in it then people give it credit for, catalyst is a perfect example of that = )

It does have it limits, and its not that good at very complicated programs that take a lot of calculations. But for simple programs id say its the best. I know wtd's gonna burn me on something... Wink Very Happy
wtd




PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 9:29 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

I would simply ask... what else do you have experience with?

Also, be specific. How does Turing save you time? How does it do something better than other languages?
Tony




PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 10:39 pm   Post subject: Re: What makes language X special?

wtd wrote:
If not a language, what makes a particular environment in which you program special?

SciTE is my text editor of choice. One feature to point out is its ability to highlight the syntax of many different languages. As a web developer, I would be working with XML, XHTML, CSS, ruby templats (.rhtml), ruby source (.rb), javascript, and on an odd occasion some PHP. All at the same time. I'd have 10 files open, and each would have its syntax highlighted appropriatly. Pretty sweet.
beard0




PostPosted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 1:33 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

While I wouldn't recommend it for most things, Assembly is nice in that you know exactly how many clock cycles each part will take. Also, you can come up with very creative run-time efficient solutions (as opposed to programming effecient). It's also a great learning experience to program in Assembly, as you gain a greater knowledge of computer hardware, and upon reflection, an understanding of some modern-language constructs.

I did my programmings with various PIC chips, and even got the chance to do some "networking" where I had binary inputs of one chip connected to binary outputs of the other. It meant that I had to decide on my own protocol for the exchange of information. The programming that I did was very interesting in merging the software and hardware aspects, as I was actually drilling boards, and soldering, and design techniques whereby a pin could be used as input or output, by using resistors, as I was short on I/O pins for my application. I would definately encourage others to give it a try, and would be happy to help out if anyone has any difficulties. http://store.qkits.com/category.cfm/PIC
wtd




PostPosted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 1:38 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

This is fantastic. Keep the posts coming. Smile
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Cervantes




PostPosted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:45 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

wtd wrote:
So you'd say it's a matter of compromising between a powerful language that tries to do everything with specialized additions to the language itself, and a language that tries to do very little with its core language, instead leaving everything to the library?

If that is supposed to say "leaving everything to the programmer", then yes. But I would also switch the placement of the word "powerful". I think it better suites the Ruby-esque language, rather than the library intensive language.

Tony wrote:
SciTE is my text editor of choice

I second that.
Naveg




PostPosted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 9:41 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

Cervantes wrote:

Tony wrote:
SciTE is my text editor of choice

I second that.


AMEN! SciTE is amazing.

As for the original nature of the thread, though I am by no means an expert using it yet, Python so far is a great language. It has a very simple, comprehensible syntax, and yet its power cannot be underestimated. It is also very programmer-efficient, one can write simple programs in very little code using python. I thank the python challenge (www.pythonchallenge.com) for getting me going with the language, and recommend it as an excellent beginning for those with prior programming experience who wish to learn python.
rizzix




PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:39 am   Post subject: (No subject)

SubEthaEdit here... (pfft! SciTE,, don't make me laugh) Wink
try doing this with SciTE: Block Editing
rizzix




PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:46 am   Post subject: (No subject)

Cervantes wrote:
If that is supposed to say "leaving everything to the programmer", then yes. But I would also switch the placement of the word "powerful". I think it better suites the Ruby-esque language, rather than the library intensive language.
You call it "powerful" i call it bloated.. Two sides of the same coin... unlike Ruby,, Haskell isin't bloated.. Haskell relies on it well defined library.. The language is small.. oh "very small"... and it is by far the only well-formed, well-defined language (from the ground up) i've seen to date...
wtd




PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:50 am   Post subject: (No subject)

rizzix: let's keep it positive here.
Cervantes




PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:44 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

rizzix wrote:
You call it "powerful" i call it bloated.. Two sides of the same coin... unlike Ruby,, Haskell isin't bloated.. Haskell relies on it well defined library.. The language is small.. oh "very small"... and it is by far the only well-formed, well-defined language (from the ground up) i've seen to date...

I do not call languages bloated with library classes/functions powerful. I agree in calling them bloated.

Ruby is not that bloated. When I wrote that sentance, I was comparing Ruby and Java. Wink
md




PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:49 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

Pascal! Awesome syntax that's easy to follow and free of redundant braces of all kinds. Only thing wrong with it is that there is no official standard Sad
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