Recently, I’ve been taken with the idea of programming languages as notation. When most people look at a programming language, they see syntax and possibly an underlying paradigm. I see the same, I just find the idea that each language also provides a unique notation for expressing ideas quite appealing. Lately, I’ve been thinking about… Read More »
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 »
What is it about the programming field that makes everyone believe that it is easy? I can’t count the number of times I have had someone tell me: All you have to do is… How hard can it be? You just… It won’t take that long. It’s just a little program. etc. Most of these… Read More »
Recently, I stumbled across Mental State Called Flow and was reminded of an idea I had about flow and Miller’s Magic Number. When in the state of flow, I’ve sometimes had the experience that the problem I was working on was much easier to understand than it seemed to be when I was not in… Read More »
I’ve already written some of my ideas about paradigms, but the most important point still remains. I maintain that the real benefit of a paradigm is not the way of thinking that it defines, but the contrast between this way of thinking and others. Almost every programmer I’ve ever met that only knows one paradigm… Read More »
And just to prove that some ideas appear in many places all at once, Andy Lester explores naming again in O’Reilly Network: The world’s two worst variable names [Mar. 07, 2004]. Apparently, Lester is reviewing the second edition of Code Complete, one of my favorite books on programming, and says there is an entire chapter… Read More »
In my weblog entry Programmer Musings: Paradigms Lost from about five days ago, I talked about some of the negative effects of programming paradigms. That entry could give the impression that I don’t believe in new paradigms. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, I think the main benefit of new programming paradigms is… Read More »
An earlier weblog entry, Programmer Musings: Paradigms limit possible solutions, spent some time on what paradigms do for programming. Now, I’d like to consider a slightly different take on programming paradigms. Why do programming paradigms seem to take on the force of religion for so many in the software field?
In some legends and in fantasy, there is the concept of a True Name. Once you know someone’s true name, you have power over them. To guard against problems with this most people would commonly use a use name that everyone actually uses to refer to them to keep their true name safe. In programming,… Read More »