Re: Language Paradigms (was RTFM Resources Wanted)


Subject: Re: Language Paradigms (was RTFM Resources Wanted)
From: Patrick Callahan (pac1@tiac.net)
Date: Mon Jul 02 2001 - 17:00:31 MDT


> 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:
>
Where exactly is the innovation in Linux. Can anyone out there with more
experience than me, name the things in Linux that are truly original in the
last few years. Is there anything new in linux that is not found in other
operating systems before it appeared in linux? What's the historical
perspective?

> 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?

Most things are built on the base of previoius work. Same for Linux. Still
there are times when I'd like to see a fresh take on the things that Linux
does. Maybe Plan 9...(sigh) As for the adventure, try obtaining the source
for anything, building it and installing it over your favorite distribution.
It's an adventure for sure...

> 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.
>
OO a lowest common denominator? I think LCD is straight procedural
programming, structured or otherwise.

People started talking about Object Orientation back in the Early 80's and
maybe earlier. It took at least 10 years for the concept to become
mainstream. At first it was hyped as "The solution to all our problems" Now
its just another piece of the toolset. I expect something similar will
happen with functional programming. Perhaps it too will build on every
previous method.

> 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.
>

Often things that look mutally exclusive in one dimension turn out to be are
the same thing when you view the whole in more than one dimension. I wonder
if the object oriented apporach and functional programming will eventually
look like two sides of the same thing.

> 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!)
>

It certainly has a bit of public life to it. But is the body politic healthy?

> Best, Pat



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