Language Paradigms (was RTFM Resources Wanted)


Subject: Language Paradigms (was RTFM Resources Wanted)
From: Ted Goranson (tedg@infi.net)
Date: Mon Jul 02 2001 - 08:16:08 MDT


> > My own goals are to install YDL with X as a system to do development
> > in a strange language (Haskell).
>
>What's so strange about Haskell? ;-) ;-) - nudge nudge

Well, it IS strange to the Linux world.

Linux is revolutionary in one way: it leverages cooperation, and is
likely to result in more of a real revolution of the people than
anything we worked for in the 60s. But it is really lowest common
denominator stuff, at least the stuff of the core Linux community:

15 year old notions of user interface (where the user interfaces
exist!); 15 year old notions of control, piping and and messaging; A
blind adoption of the PeeCee conventions in web clients--not even one
minor innovation in the web! In developing word processors, what we
get is Word/WP clones. Where's the adventure?

But worst of all (continuing this thread) is the drift to lowest
common denominator programming paradigm: object oriented. Now that's
well and good for workaday engineers I suppose. But there are some
wild and crazy ideas out there. Functional programming is the one I'm
going to pursue.

I think the number of people interested in Haskell, in distributed
agents, and in OSX or Linux may be few indeed, because each
philosophy somewhat excludes the other. That's what I meant by
strange.

Still, my impression is that the Linux world has the most life of any
community and I am already beginning to feel like I did when entering
the Mac world a decade ago (and communicating sometimes by fidonet!)

Best, Ted

-- 
_____________
Ted Goranson
Fusecap and Sirius-Beta, Virginia Beach USA
757/426-6704
tedg@sirius-beta.com
Symmetry Conference: http://www.isis-s.unsw.edu.au



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