I’ve been thinking lately about the differences between programming languages. Over and over again, we see religious wars over what is the best programming language. Lately, we’ve also seen a lot of comparisons that look at particular classes of languages. Object-oriented vs. procedural Dynamic vs. static I have always had a kind of fascination with… Read More »
A couple of years ago, I wrote a set of three essays on Resource Management: The Semantics of Garbage Collection, More Thoughts on Resource Recovery, and Other Resource Recovery Approaches. In summary, my argument in these articles was that the standard mark-and-sweep garbage collection falls down for two major reasons, it doesn’t deal with any… Read More »
Perl 6 Now: The Core Ideas Illustrated with Perl 5 Scott Waters Apress, 2005 I had mixed feelings about reading this book caused by my current views of Perl 6. Some of what I have heard about Perl 6 is exciting and I really can’t wait. Other things I have heard fill me with dread.… Read More »
As I said in Joel on Wrong-Looking Code, I find Joel on Software to be a good source of information on programming. However, I don’t always agree with him. In Joel on Software – Making Wrong Code Look Wrong, Joel states that he does not like exceptions. He also refers to a previous article Joel… Read More »
I find that I have a different viewpoint about programming languages than many programmers I’ve met. I feel that a programming language embodies three different things: a tool for solving problems an approach to thinking about solutions a notation I don’t believe that there is any language that is the best or most powerful in… Read More »
In The Architecture of Participation vesus(sic) Hacking, Carlos Perez argues against points he sees in the essay Great Hackers by Paul Graham. Having read the two essays, I find Perez’s comments enlightening, but maybe not in the way he intended. I found things in both essays that I agree with, and things in both that… Read More »
In The Semantics of Garbage Collection, I explained why I don’t like the term garbage collection. I also introduced the term resource recovery, and suggested that this change in naming could generate a useful change in viewpoint. Many programmers have been indoctrinated with the belief that garbage collection is the solution to all memory problems,… Read More »
I have a confession to make. I’ve never really been comfortable with garbage collection. Now, before you dismiss me as a Luddite who has obviously never worked with an advanced programming language, let me explain. I’m familiar with many different forms of garbage collection. I have worked in languages with and without garbage collection. I’ve… Read More »
What is it about programmers that cause them to latch onto one approach and try to apply it to every problem? Maybe it’s a characteristic of people in general. Each new paradigm, methodology, or even language seems to grab hold of many programmers and make them forget anything they ever knew. They seem to develop… Read More »
Like any natural language, most programming languages support idioms. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, an idiom is A speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements, as in keep tabs on. A… Read More »