Software written before Java emerged on the scene - software pre-1995 - was all pretty much a hack. Much of the software that is still being written is a hack. People change slowly. Programmers have to die, almost, for this to change. - Bill Joy
Software written before Java emerged on the scene - software pre-1995 - was all pretty much a hack. Much of the software that is still being written is a hack. People change slowly. Programmers have to die, almost, for this to change. - Bill Joy
Wow! For this to be true Java must have changed
a hell of a lot since I stopped using it in 1999
(when I took up Perl).
Of all the languages I have used extensively
(including C, C++, Smalltalk, Java, Tcl, Lisp, Prolog, Modula2, ML -
a few that spring to mind immediately - I have dabbled in many others), I have found Perl to
be the least annoying. With all the
others you always run up against some brick wall
that requires you admit that you can't get where
you want to be from where you are. In Perl it
always seems to be possible to get yourself out
(even when completely recoding is the right thing
to do).
Well my guess the brick wall effect is because the elegant languages are more prone "only one way to do it".
If there's more than one way to do something "correctly", then there could be a higher chance for a newb like me to succeed, and have fun redoing again.
Whereas if there's only one (maybe obvious) way to do it, the odds probably drop somewhat for me...
I'm trying to learn Lisp. Any tips? So far it seems like Lisp programmers tend to be very smart, efficient and industrious, and so 1) They don't mind writing everything themselves. 2) Everything else is crap anyway - not doing the "right thing".
Whereas with Perl, a lazy but reasonably bright chap like me can easily build on other people's work- modules, talking to all sorts of DBs, other programs, websites etc.
In contrast I found Java very annoying - e.g. whose bright idea was it to have an easy way to find out the number of selected columns in db query, but not have an easy way to find the selected rows? Move to the last row and get the row number? Doh. Do the language authors actually use their language? Java programmers must be extremely hardworking and verbose to boot(StuffWithSuperLongNames2). Man. If I wanted that something like that I'd go back to my 65xx machine code days, calculate my branch offsets by hand, count cycles etc.
Excellent (Score:5, Interesting)
Excellent interview; would like to see more with him in the future. My dream list right now would be:
Re:Excellent (Score:3, Informative)
Interviewed today by the Financial Times. [ft.com] His solution for building elegant software seems a bit extreme ;)
Re:Excellent (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow! For this to be true Java must have changed a hell of a lot since I stopped using it in 1999 (when I took up Perl).
Of all the languages I have used extensively (including C, C++, Smalltalk, Java, Tcl, Lisp, Prolog, Modula2, ML - a few that spring to mind immediately - I have dabbled in many others), I have found Perl to be the least annoying. With all the others you always run up against some brick wall that requires you admit that you can't get where you want to be from where you are. In Perl it always seems to be possible to get yourself out (even when completely recoding is the right thing to do).
Wow that many languages? (Score:2)
If there's more than one way to do something "correctly", then there could be a higher chance for a newb like me to succeed, and have fun redoing again.
Whereas if there's only one (maybe obvious) way to do it, the odds probably drop somewhat for me...
I'm trying to learn Lisp. Any tips? So far it seems like Lisp programmers tend to be very smart, efficient and industrious, and so
1) They don't mind writing everything themselves.
2) Everything else is crap anyway - not doing the "right thing".
Whereas with Perl, a lazy but reasonably bright chap like me can easily build on other people's work- modules, talking to all sorts of DBs, other programs, websites etc.
In contrast I found Java very annoying - e.g. whose bright idea was it to have an easy way to find out the number of selected columns in db query, but not have an easy way to find the selected rows? Move to the last row and get the row number? Doh. Do the language authors actually use their language? Java programmers must be extremely hardworking and verbose to boot(StuffWithSuperLongNames2). Man. If I wanted that something like that I'd go back to my 65xx machine code days, calculate my branch offsets by hand, count cycles etc.
Gone soft with age
Link.
Re:Excellent (Score:2)
Stephen Hawking [hawking.org.uk] would probably get annoyed if we asked him to do an interview and misspelled his name.
Re:Excellent (Score:2)
His earlier albums were some electronic works of art.
Captain Crunch!! (was Re:Excellent) (Score:1)
Of course he hasn't done much lately, except the crunchbox...but I'd be interested in knowing some stuff.
Re:Excellent (Score:2)
I think you'll find she goes by Mary Ann Horton these days, if I understand correctly.