Programming Language and code aesthetics

[Jim Crafton]

I'd argue that part of Object Pascal's "prettiness" is in it's uniformity. There's a precision to it's design that make it feel like something that was crafted and thought about, whereas C/C++ tend to feel like something that was just kind of grown from some crazy mad scientist's post-60's LSD trip, and then gradually beaten into shape to be something useful. While the verbosity can be a bit much, I'd agree with you on the "with" keyword, it also, IMHO, leads to very nicely laid out and well written code. Of all the code I've ever read, OP was the easiest to just fall into, and the best code I've ever read, bar none, is Borland's VCL source. It's clean, clear, and easy to follow, with largely logical names, well thought out design, it's just good stuff. Contrast that with most C/C++ code, which frequently is either a maze of cryptic, vowel challenged, 3 letter variable names, or an unreadable morass of hungarian notation, half of which doesn't even match up any more, plus the haze of pre-processor statements, which make you want to poke your eyes out trying to figure out what's going on.

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[Single Step Debugger]

Jim Crafton wrote:

Of all the code I've ever read, OP was the easiest to just fall into, and the best code I've ever read, bar none, is Borland's VCL source. It's clean, clear, and easy to follow, with largely logical names, well thought out design, it's just good stuff.

I’m totally agreed with that. The VCL even the Indy components was masterpiece. Though some function names like “GetDefaultSystemFonts” are a little too verbose.:)

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[Michael Bergman]

Ray Cassick wrote:

I take heat for it but I love VB.net.

As well you should.

m.bergman

-- For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.

[Michael Bergman]

My vote for the prettiest language is PCL6. My vote for the ugliest language is PCL6.

m.bergman

-- For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.

[Gary R Wheeler]

Steve Hazel wrote:

forth is prettiest (but not so useful in the long run

You didn't take your meds today, did you? FORTH; blech.

Software Zen: delete this;
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[bulg]

__asm{...}

[Paul Conrad]

bulg wrote:

__asm{...}

Not bad, at least compared to AT&T style assembly with gcc :rolleyes:

"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham

[Shog9 0]

Ray Cassick wrote:

C++ may look pretty form a distance

But rarely does. ...unless it happens to be standing next to VB... :rolleyes:

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You're right. These facts that you've laid out totally contradict the wild ramblings that I pulled off the back of cornflakes packets.

[Shog9 0]

I enjoy the look of C and JavaScript. Both lend themselves well to small, tightly-written functions. Of course, any language can be made ugly.

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You're right. These facts that you've laid out totally contradict the wild ramblings that I pulled off the back of cornflakes packets.

[Vikram A Punathambekar]

I find the C-derived languages pleasing to look at. I am not a VB basher, but the code looks ugly. I am not familiar enough with other languages to comment on them.

Cheers, Vıkram.

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[stephen hazel]

forth can be elegant. Like perl, it can also be an absolute dog's breakfast like the rest...

[PIEBALDconsult]

Depends on what you're used to. Even W finds his wife attractive. X| Over the weekend I glanced at some C code I wrote about ten years ago -- X| A colleague showed me an SQL function he was working on today -- X| I just glanced at an old Ada book I have sitting around (I never learned it) -- X| COBOL, BASIC -- X| Pascal not so much. But C# I really enjoy now. (Even though no one else would format it the way I do.) :~ I think the dividing line is whether or not the language uses BEGIN/END. The fewer "words" and the more symbols the better.

[Gary R Wheeler]

... Beholder, Beauty Eye of

Software Zen: delete this;
Fold With Us![^]

[stephen hazel]

sooooooooooo true. Kinda Yoda like... (Like Grover I talk. SORRY!)

[andrey dmitriev]

I found G (LabVIEW) most and really beautiful. Andrey.

[Behzad Sedighzadeh]

I think C is still the most beautiful Language, though i do most of my job in C#.Yo can build outside world with C.That's enough to say C is the best.

Behzad

[Mustafa Ismail Mustafa]

Deyan Georgiev wrote:

I need something more official for my wife

Uh... I've known women to become ferocious (for want of a much better word) when something tries to interrupt their control of their men. Pass. I value my life :)

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[Mustafa Ismail Mustafa]

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[RogelioP EX DE HL]

Motorola 6809 Assembly... I love PIC kept at the simple 8 bit level :-\ Then, despite the strong sentiments against: I love Basic Pascal, C & Fortran follow close. -=[ R ]=-

[BillWoodruff]

imho Forth was (is ?) as much a "religion" as a computer language. i used to be "proselytized" by Forth adherents back in the 1980's; they had a gleam in their eye that signified they had found the great revelation : it was clear to me that spreading its "words" was accompanied by a "holy zeal." by the way i have nada against languages with RPN and an explicit stack; for many years PostScript was my bread and butter. but, for me, PostScript was LISP in drag as a printer controller language. with PostScript (as well as Forth and LISP) it's easy to write unmaintainable code that is idiosyncratic to the nth. degree, needlessly recursive, self-re-writing, etc. : all of which, from another perspective can be a very good way for a programmer to write a continuous employment contract for themself forever and ever. :) best, Bill

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