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  3. Time for a new programming language paradigm

Time for a new programming language paradigm

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  • R rjmoses

    Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:

    Plus, in my opinion, the ability to see on screen without scrolling the maximum amount of logic is paramount in writing good systems. The eyes move orders of magnitude faster than scrolling. I have seen some beautifully written, well documented code that was nearly impossible to trouble shoot for all the novel in the code.

    I have seen all too much code that took most the screen to display a simple concept. E.g., if ( a = b ) { c = d; } else { if ( p == q ) q = r; }; This coder use spacing to up his LOC/day count. Comprehension....well...that leaves a lot to be desired. And I agree about beautifully written code. I saw a 1000 character program written in one line with no white space. Couldn't begin to understand what it was doing.

    Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:

    So I had a lot of practice spotting poorly placed operators. I would much rather spend one day every other year looking for a misplaced semi-colon than spend the time adding verbosity.

    If there is time, and no pressure, a misplaced semi-colon isn't a problem. But, add pressure, such as commodities trading, and you have 2 minutes to find and fix the bug, well....pass the Maalox please.

    B Offline
    B Offline
    BobJanova
    wrote on last edited by
    #19

    This is a major rant I have about default (e.g. StyleCop) formatting conventions. They waste so much space that you can't actually see what the code does.

    S 1 Reply Last reply
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    • R rjmoses

      BobJanova wrote:

      if(a == 5) { DoSomeStuff(); }

      Take away one '=' in the if statement, put it in a seldom used error recovery routine and you have the bug I spent six months chasing. The mental skills required to spot the difference between '=' and '==' is difficult overcome when you are under pressure. I also chased a bug where a statement was inserted between the closing parenthesis and the opening brace, thus changing the entire program flow. (if (a == b) dosomethingnew; { dosomething }; What I want is to be able to look at a piece of code and accurately comprehend the meaning, intention and function of what the original programmer was trying to convey. "if a is 5..." can be a lot clearer than "if (a=5)..." in many cases. And, I'm not suggesting allowing mixed language constructs that do the same thing, although that is not out of the picture. And, as you stated so well, the machine requires precision. I agree! The question I'm raising is: How can we design a programming language that is easier, more accurate, less error prone, easier to modify, etc.?

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      PIEBALDconsult
      wrote on last edited by
      #20

      Yes, well a bare equal-sign should be an error; assignment should be with :=, a la Pascal and others.

      You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • R rjmoses

        Just spent the better part of two weeks trying to find a bug in a Linux bash script (missing ".") and I'm tired of looking for things like a missing equal sign in the middle of an C if statement, missing period in a PHP script, lower case variable name mixed with an upper case variable name, missing brace in a C++ object, undelared function or operator overloading....get my drift?...in other people's code. (Being the perfect programmer, I never make those kinds of mistakes! And I have swamp property if you're interested.) All too many programming errors are occurring because programming languages, like C, C++, java, etc., trace their origins back to the days when terseness was a desirable quality. Printing a program listing on an ASR 33 teletype at 10 CPS on a single threaded machine made using braces in C if statements instead of a clear if-then-else-endif highly desirable. (Remember the origins of C?) Those extra 9 characters took TIME to read in and to print out. And then there's issues of language diversity. C, C++, PHP, Java, Javascript, HTML, CSS, SQL, and other languages--what works where? So, here's a few of my thoughts: (And please don't be too anal about my examples--I really want to hear how programming languages could be advanced so that I can be more productive.) Among other things, a New Programming Language should: 1) Be clear and obvious in describing the functionality of the module. The resulting code should almost be language like. A sentence like "If (A equals 10) then print B as "xx.xx" else B = 0 end". But, that statement might also be written in a more mathematical syntax (like Fortran) as "If (A = 10) then....". Note the "=" in the second statement does NOT have the implied assignment and resulting TRUE logical decision (Spent 6 months chasing THAT bug!). 2) The language should be portable. The language should be executable as an interpreted, compiled, scripted or shell'ed running under most commonly available OS's and browsers. Perhaps Interpreted for testing, Compiled for execution speed, scripted for portability or shell'ed for utility work. Take features from scripting languages like Powershell, bash, incorporate execution speed of C, objectivity of Java or C++ and put them under one roof. Write a module that runs under IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Windows, Linux, BSD, OS X, or anything else. 3) The code should be almost self-documenting. Nothing I hate worse than to have to go looking for the a type declaration, a

        S Offline
        S Offline
        snorkie
        wrote on last edited by
        #21

        Sounds like you really just want a compiler to be more helpful with errors. Tools like Resharper help with this in Visual Studio! Hogan

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        • S snorkie

          Sounds like you really just want a compiler to be more helpful with errors. Tools like Resharper help with this in Visual Studio! Hogan

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          P Offline
          PIEBALDconsult
          wrote on last edited by
          #22

          (Not everyone uses Visual Studio.)

          You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

          S 1 Reply Last reply
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          • P PIEBALDconsult

            (Not everyone uses Visual Studio.)

            You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

            S Offline
            S Offline
            snorkie
            wrote on last edited by
            #23

            If it was easy, everybody could it it! But on a more serious note, not using Visual Studio is a choice... For the hourly costs of developers (at least in the US), its worth the money to equip people with the best tools to accomplish work. And before going off on costs, there are free versions of VS. Hogan

            P S 2 Replies Last reply
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            • R rjmoses

              Just spent the better part of two weeks trying to find a bug in a Linux bash script (missing ".") and I'm tired of looking for things like a missing equal sign in the middle of an C if statement, missing period in a PHP script, lower case variable name mixed with an upper case variable name, missing brace in a C++ object, undelared function or operator overloading....get my drift?...in other people's code. (Being the perfect programmer, I never make those kinds of mistakes! And I have swamp property if you're interested.) All too many programming errors are occurring because programming languages, like C, C++, java, etc., trace their origins back to the days when terseness was a desirable quality. Printing a program listing on an ASR 33 teletype at 10 CPS on a single threaded machine made using braces in C if statements instead of a clear if-then-else-endif highly desirable. (Remember the origins of C?) Those extra 9 characters took TIME to read in and to print out. And then there's issues of language diversity. C, C++, PHP, Java, Javascript, HTML, CSS, SQL, and other languages--what works where? So, here's a few of my thoughts: (And please don't be too anal about my examples--I really want to hear how programming languages could be advanced so that I can be more productive.) Among other things, a New Programming Language should: 1) Be clear and obvious in describing the functionality of the module. The resulting code should almost be language like. A sentence like "If (A equals 10) then print B as "xx.xx" else B = 0 end". But, that statement might also be written in a more mathematical syntax (like Fortran) as "If (A = 10) then....". Note the "=" in the second statement does NOT have the implied assignment and resulting TRUE logical decision (Spent 6 months chasing THAT bug!). 2) The language should be portable. The language should be executable as an interpreted, compiled, scripted or shell'ed running under most commonly available OS's and browsers. Perhaps Interpreted for testing, Compiled for execution speed, scripted for portability or shell'ed for utility work. Take features from scripting languages like Powershell, bash, incorporate execution speed of C, objectivity of Java or C++ and put them under one roof. Write a module that runs under IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Windows, Linux, BSD, OS X, or anything else. 3) The code should be almost self-documenting. Nothing I hate worse than to have to go looking for the a type declaration, a

              C Offline
              C Offline
              CPallini
              wrote on last edited by
              #24

              Programming languages are not for sissies.

              Veni, vidi, vici.

              P 1 Reply Last reply
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              • B BobJanova

                This is a major rant I have about default (e.g. StyleCop) formatting conventions. They waste so much space that you can't actually see what the code does.

                S Offline
                S Offline
                snorkie
                wrote on last edited by
                #25

                Sounds like a reason to requisition a larger monitor[^] :laugh:

                S 1 Reply Last reply
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                • L Lost User

                  rjmoses wrote:

                  trace their origins back to the days when terseness was a desirable quality.

                  It still is. A decent C# class uses less characters to convey the same info as written in Object Pascal. Less characters to convey the same info - do you really need a "begin" and an "end" block?

                  rjmoses wrote:

                  Be clear and obvious in describing the functionality of the module.

                  When is something obvious? If you've ever hunted a swallowed exception in VB6, you'll know that this is not possible. Code should be unambigious, simple and clean. It should not become an exercise to omit documentation.

                  rjmoses wrote:

                  1. The language should be portable.

                  It's not the language that decides on what platforms it will be implemented. VB6 will never appear on Linux without starting a major war.

                  rjmoses wrote:

                  1. The code should be almost self-documenting.

                  Only if you're not coding, but scripting. That means that we'd limit this "programmer" to an IDE like MS Access. You'd never get InterOp or call the WinAPI. You'd never get a pointer.

                  rjmoses wrote:

                  1. The language should incorporate most commonly-used functionality.

                  I've yet to meet the (broadly used) language that doesn't. Type-safety is something valuable - suggesting to remove it would be a step back.

                  rjmoses wrote:

                  1. And, finally, it should be easily extensible.

                  A language? Please not; how would your old code react to changes? Can you oversee whether or not your change "breaks" something? Sorry, but only MS Access has these properties. I don't see it being used in the same way we use programming languages.

                  Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

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                  P Offline
                  PIEBALDconsult
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #26

                  Eddy Vluggen wrote:

                  rjmoses wrote:

                  1. The language should be portable.

                  It's not the language that decides on what platforms it will be implemented. VB6 will never appear on Linux without starting a major war.

                  Every language* is portable, but not every language gets ported everywhere. * With the possible exception of the various assembly languages, but I suspect that even they could be compiled for a system they weren't intended for, perhaps with some limitations, but I'm no expert on that.

                  You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

                  K 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • S snorkie

                    If it was easy, everybody could it it! But on a more serious note, not using Visual Studio is a choice... For the hourly costs of developers (at least in the US), its worth the money to equip people with the best tools to accomplish work. And before going off on costs, there are free versions of VS. Hogan

                    P Offline
                    P Offline
                    PIEBALDconsult
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #27

                    snorkie wrote:

                    not using Visual Studio is a choice

                    Exactly.

                    snorkie wrote:

                    the best tools

                    What's that got to do with Visual Studio? :-D Seriously, I use Visual Studio when I need to, but not when I don't. I have Ultimate at work and Express at home. Use the right tool for the right job.

                    You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • C CPallini

                      Programming languages are not for sissies.

                      Veni, vidi, vici.

                      P Offline
                      P Offline
                      PIEBALDconsult
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #28

                      Didn't he say it was a BASH script? Isn't that Klingon?

                      You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

                      C 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • P PIEBALDconsult

                        Didn't he say it was a BASH script? Isn't that Klingon?

                        You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

                        C Offline
                        C Offline
                        CPallini
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #29

                        At most he was.

                        Veni, vidi, vici.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • T Tim Carmichael

                          So... what you want is a common business oriented language? COBOL it is!

                          C Offline
                          C Offline
                          Colborne_Greg
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #30

                          After two decades of cobol I am ready to chuck it out the window

                          U 1 Reply Last reply
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                          • R rjmoses

                            Just spent the better part of two weeks trying to find a bug in a Linux bash script (missing ".") and I'm tired of looking for things like a missing equal sign in the middle of an C if statement, missing period in a PHP script, lower case variable name mixed with an upper case variable name, missing brace in a C++ object, undelared function or operator overloading....get my drift?...in other people's code. (Being the perfect programmer, I never make those kinds of mistakes! And I have swamp property if you're interested.) All too many programming errors are occurring because programming languages, like C, C++, java, etc., trace their origins back to the days when terseness was a desirable quality. Printing a program listing on an ASR 33 teletype at 10 CPS on a single threaded machine made using braces in C if statements instead of a clear if-then-else-endif highly desirable. (Remember the origins of C?) Those extra 9 characters took TIME to read in and to print out. And then there's issues of language diversity. C, C++, PHP, Java, Javascript, HTML, CSS, SQL, and other languages--what works where? So, here's a few of my thoughts: (And please don't be too anal about my examples--I really want to hear how programming languages could be advanced so that I can be more productive.) Among other things, a New Programming Language should: 1) Be clear and obvious in describing the functionality of the module. The resulting code should almost be language like. A sentence like "If (A equals 10) then print B as "xx.xx" else B = 0 end". But, that statement might also be written in a more mathematical syntax (like Fortran) as "If (A = 10) then....". Note the "=" in the second statement does NOT have the implied assignment and resulting TRUE logical decision (Spent 6 months chasing THAT bug!). 2) The language should be portable. The language should be executable as an interpreted, compiled, scripted or shell'ed running under most commonly available OS's and browsers. Perhaps Interpreted for testing, Compiled for execution speed, scripted for portability or shell'ed for utility work. Take features from scripting languages like Powershell, bash, incorporate execution speed of C, objectivity of Java or C++ and put them under one roof. Write a module that runs under IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Windows, Linux, BSD, OS X, or anything else. 3) The code should be almost self-documenting. Nothing I hate worse than to have to go looking for the a type declaration, a

                            C Offline
                            C Offline
                            Colborne_Greg
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #31

                            20 years of programming in Cobol, C++, and html The language that meets your requirements is Visual Basic 2013. Everything that C++ can do Visual Basic 2013 can do. Here is an example of code, with no documentation, lets see if you can figure out what it does.

                            Public Interface iArray(Of someType)
                            Event ItemAdded(ByRef Item As someType)

                            Sub AddRange(Range() As someType)
                            Function Clear() As someType()
                            Property Collected() As someType()
                            Function Count() As Int64
                            Property Item(Index As Int64) As someType
                            
                            WriteOnly Property NewItem() As someType
                            WriteOnly Property NewItems As someType()
                            Property Populated As Boolean
                            Function LastIndex() As Int64
                            

                            End Interface
                            <Serializable>
                            Partial Public Class Array(Of SomeType)
                            Implements iArray(Of SomeType)

                            Private mCollected() As SomeType
                            Private mPopulated As Boolean
                            
                            
                            Public Event ItemAdded(ByRef Item As SomeType) Implements iArray(Of SomeType).ItemAdded
                            
                            
                            Public Property Collected() As SomeType() Implements iArray(Of SomeType).Collected
                                Get
                                    If mCollected Is Nothing Then mCollected = New SomeType() {}
                                    Return mCollected
                                End Get
                                Set(value As SomeType())
                                    mCollected = value
                                End Set
                            End Property
                            
                            Public Sub AddRange(Range() As SomeType) Implements iArray(Of SomeType).AddRange
                                Allocate(Collected, Range)
                                Populated = True
                            End Sub
                            Public Shared Function Allocate(ByRef TheArray() As SomeType, ByVal Value As SomeType) As SomeType()
                                Return Allocate(TheArray, Value, LastIndexOf(TheArray))
                            End Function
                            Public Shared Function Allocate(ByRef TheArray() As SomeType, ByVal Values() As SomeType) As SomeType()
                                Return Allocate(TheArray, Values, LastIndexOf(TheArray))
                            End Function
                            Public Shared Function Allocate(ByRef TheArray() As SomeType, ByVal Values() As SomeType, ByRef Index As Int64) As SomeType()
                                Try
                                    For Current As Int64 = 0 To Values.Length - 1
                                        Allocate(TheArray, Values(Current), Index + Current)
                                    Next
                                Catch
                                End Try
                                Return TheArray
                            End Function
                            Public Shared Function Allocate(ByRef TheArray() As SomeType, ByVal Value As SomeType, ByRef Index As Int64) As SomeType()
                                Try
                                    TheArray(Index) = Value
                                Catch
                                    ReDim Preserve TheArray(Index)
                                    TheArray(Index) = Value
                                End Try
                            
                                Return TheArray
                            
                            S J 2 Replies Last reply
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                            • R rjmoses

                              Just spent the better part of two weeks trying to find a bug in a Linux bash script (missing ".") and I'm tired of looking for things like a missing equal sign in the middle of an C if statement, missing period in a PHP script, lower case variable name mixed with an upper case variable name, missing brace in a C++ object, undelared function or operator overloading....get my drift?...in other people's code. (Being the perfect programmer, I never make those kinds of mistakes! And I have swamp property if you're interested.) All too many programming errors are occurring because programming languages, like C, C++, java, etc., trace their origins back to the days when terseness was a desirable quality. Printing a program listing on an ASR 33 teletype at 10 CPS on a single threaded machine made using braces in C if statements instead of a clear if-then-else-endif highly desirable. (Remember the origins of C?) Those extra 9 characters took TIME to read in and to print out. And then there's issues of language diversity. C, C++, PHP, Java, Javascript, HTML, CSS, SQL, and other languages--what works where? So, here's a few of my thoughts: (And please don't be too anal about my examples--I really want to hear how programming languages could be advanced so that I can be more productive.) Among other things, a New Programming Language should: 1) Be clear and obvious in describing the functionality of the module. The resulting code should almost be language like. A sentence like "If (A equals 10) then print B as "xx.xx" else B = 0 end". But, that statement might also be written in a more mathematical syntax (like Fortran) as "If (A = 10) then....". Note the "=" in the second statement does NOT have the implied assignment and resulting TRUE logical decision (Spent 6 months chasing THAT bug!). 2) The language should be portable. The language should be executable as an interpreted, compiled, scripted or shell'ed running under most commonly available OS's and browsers. Perhaps Interpreted for testing, Compiled for execution speed, scripted for portability or shell'ed for utility work. Take features from scripting languages like Powershell, bash, incorporate execution speed of C, objectivity of Java or C++ and put them under one roof. Write a module that runs under IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Windows, Linux, BSD, OS X, or anything else. 3) The code should be almost self-documenting. Nothing I hate worse than to have to go looking for the a type declaration, a

                              B Offline
                              B Offline
                              BillWoodruff
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #32

                              I think it's time for you to move forward from living in the late Paleolithic in terms of developer tools to the modern era where superb tools like .NET's compiler, Visual Studio, and add-ons like ReSharper, help make coding much more efficient. It's always going to be a "Tower of Bable" out there, in the real world. But, if you enjoy living without the wheel, fine.

                              “I speak in a poem of the ancient food of heroes: humiliation, unhappiness, discord. Those things are given to us to transform, so that we may make from the miserable circumstances of our lives things that are eternal, or aspire to be so.” Jorge Luis Borges

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • C Chris Maunder

                                All your answers are at The Osmosian Order[^]

                                cheers Chris Maunder

                                A Offline
                                A Offline
                                Andy Brummer
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #33

                                How long have you been waiting to trot that one out? That frickin' awesome.

                                Curvature of the Mind now with 3D

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • R rjmoses

                                  Just spent the better part of two weeks trying to find a bug in a Linux bash script (missing ".") and I'm tired of looking for things like a missing equal sign in the middle of an C if statement, missing period in a PHP script, lower case variable name mixed with an upper case variable name, missing brace in a C++ object, undelared function or operator overloading....get my drift?...in other people's code. (Being the perfect programmer, I never make those kinds of mistakes! And I have swamp property if you're interested.) All too many programming errors are occurring because programming languages, like C, C++, java, etc., trace their origins back to the days when terseness was a desirable quality. Printing a program listing on an ASR 33 teletype at 10 CPS on a single threaded machine made using braces in C if statements instead of a clear if-then-else-endif highly desirable. (Remember the origins of C?) Those extra 9 characters took TIME to read in and to print out. And then there's issues of language diversity. C, C++, PHP, Java, Javascript, HTML, CSS, SQL, and other languages--what works where? So, here's a few of my thoughts: (And please don't be too anal about my examples--I really want to hear how programming languages could be advanced so that I can be more productive.) Among other things, a New Programming Language should: 1) Be clear and obvious in describing the functionality of the module. The resulting code should almost be language like. A sentence like "If (A equals 10) then print B as "xx.xx" else B = 0 end". But, that statement might also be written in a more mathematical syntax (like Fortran) as "If (A = 10) then....". Note the "=" in the second statement does NOT have the implied assignment and resulting TRUE logical decision (Spent 6 months chasing THAT bug!). 2) The language should be portable. The language should be executable as an interpreted, compiled, scripted or shell'ed running under most commonly available OS's and browsers. Perhaps Interpreted for testing, Compiled for execution speed, scripted for portability or shell'ed for utility work. Take features from scripting languages like Powershell, bash, incorporate execution speed of C, objectivity of Java or C++ and put them under one roof. Write a module that runs under IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Windows, Linux, BSD, OS X, or anything else. 3) The code should be almost self-documenting. Nothing I hate worse than to have to go looking for the a type declaration, a

                                  M Offline
                                  M Offline
                                  Mark_Wallace
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #34

                                  So you want to learn COBOL?

                                  I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • C Chris Maunder

                                    All your answers are at The Osmosian Order[^]

                                    cheers Chris Maunder

                                    E Offline
                                    E Offline
                                    Eytukan
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #35

                                    You beat me to it Chris. I read this title in CP daily news, & came rushing here to suggest the legendary Osmosian. Great! You have a good memory too ;). Hail Osmo!

                                    Starting to think people post kid pics in their profiles because that was the last time they were cute - Jeremy.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • R rjmoses

                                      Just spent the better part of two weeks trying to find a bug in a Linux bash script (missing ".") and I'm tired of looking for things like a missing equal sign in the middle of an C if statement, missing period in a PHP script, lower case variable name mixed with an upper case variable name, missing brace in a C++ object, undelared function or operator overloading....get my drift?...in other people's code. (Being the perfect programmer, I never make those kinds of mistakes! And I have swamp property if you're interested.) All too many programming errors are occurring because programming languages, like C, C++, java, etc., trace their origins back to the days when terseness was a desirable quality. Printing a program listing on an ASR 33 teletype at 10 CPS on a single threaded machine made using braces in C if statements instead of a clear if-then-else-endif highly desirable. (Remember the origins of C?) Those extra 9 characters took TIME to read in and to print out. And then there's issues of language diversity. C, C++, PHP, Java, Javascript, HTML, CSS, SQL, and other languages--what works where? So, here's a few of my thoughts: (And please don't be too anal about my examples--I really want to hear how programming languages could be advanced so that I can be more productive.) Among other things, a New Programming Language should: 1) Be clear and obvious in describing the functionality of the module. The resulting code should almost be language like. A sentence like "If (A equals 10) then print B as "xx.xx" else B = 0 end". But, that statement might also be written in a more mathematical syntax (like Fortran) as "If (A = 10) then....". Note the "=" in the second statement does NOT have the implied assignment and resulting TRUE logical decision (Spent 6 months chasing THAT bug!). 2) The language should be portable. The language should be executable as an interpreted, compiled, scripted or shell'ed running under most commonly available OS's and browsers. Perhaps Interpreted for testing, Compiled for execution speed, scripted for portability or shell'ed for utility work. Take features from scripting languages like Powershell, bash, incorporate execution speed of C, objectivity of Java or C++ and put them under one roof. Write a module that runs under IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Windows, Linux, BSD, OS X, or anything else. 3) The code should be almost self-documenting. Nothing I hate worse than to have to go looking for the a type declaration, a

                                      T Offline
                                      T Offline
                                      Tomas Ramirez Gomez
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #36

                                      Visual Basic .NET have almost all those features

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • R rjmoses

                                        Just spent the better part of two weeks trying to find a bug in a Linux bash script (missing ".") and I'm tired of looking for things like a missing equal sign in the middle of an C if statement, missing period in a PHP script, lower case variable name mixed with an upper case variable name, missing brace in a C++ object, undelared function or operator overloading....get my drift?...in other people's code. (Being the perfect programmer, I never make those kinds of mistakes! And I have swamp property if you're interested.) All too many programming errors are occurring because programming languages, like C, C++, java, etc., trace their origins back to the days when terseness was a desirable quality. Printing a program listing on an ASR 33 teletype at 10 CPS on a single threaded machine made using braces in C if statements instead of a clear if-then-else-endif highly desirable. (Remember the origins of C?) Those extra 9 characters took TIME to read in and to print out. And then there's issues of language diversity. C, C++, PHP, Java, Javascript, HTML, CSS, SQL, and other languages--what works where? So, here's a few of my thoughts: (And please don't be too anal about my examples--I really want to hear how programming languages could be advanced so that I can be more productive.) Among other things, a New Programming Language should: 1) Be clear and obvious in describing the functionality of the module. The resulting code should almost be language like. A sentence like "If (A equals 10) then print B as "xx.xx" else B = 0 end". But, that statement might also be written in a more mathematical syntax (like Fortran) as "If (A = 10) then....". Note the "=" in the second statement does NOT have the implied assignment and resulting TRUE logical decision (Spent 6 months chasing THAT bug!). 2) The language should be portable. The language should be executable as an interpreted, compiled, scripted or shell'ed running under most commonly available OS's and browsers. Perhaps Interpreted for testing, Compiled for execution speed, scripted for portability or shell'ed for utility work. Take features from scripting languages like Powershell, bash, incorporate execution speed of C, objectivity of Java or C++ and put them under one roof. Write a module that runs under IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Windows, Linux, BSD, OS X, or anything else. 3) The code should be almost self-documenting. Nothing I hate worse than to have to go looking for the a type declaration, a

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                                        Stefan_Lang
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #37

                                        As for missing equal signs, try Yoda conditions[^]! :)

                                        GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto) Point in case: http://www.infoq.com/news/2014/02/apple_gotofail_lessons[^]

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                                        • C Colborne_Greg

                                          20 years of programming in Cobol, C++, and html The language that meets your requirements is Visual Basic 2013. Everything that C++ can do Visual Basic 2013 can do. Here is an example of code, with no documentation, lets see if you can figure out what it does.

                                          Public Interface iArray(Of someType)
                                          Event ItemAdded(ByRef Item As someType)

                                          Sub AddRange(Range() As someType)
                                          Function Clear() As someType()
                                          Property Collected() As someType()
                                          Function Count() As Int64
                                          Property Item(Index As Int64) As someType
                                          
                                          WriteOnly Property NewItem() As someType
                                          WriteOnly Property NewItems As someType()
                                          Property Populated As Boolean
                                          Function LastIndex() As Int64
                                          

                                          End Interface
                                          <Serializable>
                                          Partial Public Class Array(Of SomeType)
                                          Implements iArray(Of SomeType)

                                          Private mCollected() As SomeType
                                          Private mPopulated As Boolean
                                          
                                          
                                          Public Event ItemAdded(ByRef Item As SomeType) Implements iArray(Of SomeType).ItemAdded
                                          
                                          
                                          Public Property Collected() As SomeType() Implements iArray(Of SomeType).Collected
                                              Get
                                                  If mCollected Is Nothing Then mCollected = New SomeType() {}
                                                  Return mCollected
                                              End Get
                                              Set(value As SomeType())
                                                  mCollected = value
                                              End Set
                                          End Property
                                          
                                          Public Sub AddRange(Range() As SomeType) Implements iArray(Of SomeType).AddRange
                                              Allocate(Collected, Range)
                                              Populated = True
                                          End Sub
                                          Public Shared Function Allocate(ByRef TheArray() As SomeType, ByVal Value As SomeType) As SomeType()
                                              Return Allocate(TheArray, Value, LastIndexOf(TheArray))
                                          End Function
                                          Public Shared Function Allocate(ByRef TheArray() As SomeType, ByVal Values() As SomeType) As SomeType()
                                              Return Allocate(TheArray, Values, LastIndexOf(TheArray))
                                          End Function
                                          Public Shared Function Allocate(ByRef TheArray() As SomeType, ByVal Values() As SomeType, ByRef Index As Int64) As SomeType()
                                              Try
                                                  For Current As Int64 = 0 To Values.Length - 1
                                                      Allocate(TheArray, Values(Current), Index + Current)
                                                  Next
                                              Catch
                                              End Try
                                              Return TheArray
                                          End Function
                                          Public Shared Function Allocate(ByRef TheArray() As SomeType, ByVal Value As SomeType, ByRef Index As Int64) As SomeType()
                                              Try
                                                  TheArray(Index) = Value
                                              Catch
                                                  ReDim Preserve TheArray(Index)
                                                  TheArray(Index) = Value
                                              End Try
                                          
                                              Return TheArray
                                          
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                                          Stefan_Lang
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #38

                                          It does create a maintenance hell ;P Seriously though: you can write undocumented code in any language. And it is never a good idea!

                                          GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto) Point in case: http://www.infoq.com/news/2014/02/apple_gotofail_lessons[^]

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