2009/04/01

Guts of Programming Languages

What makes it difficult to master a new programming language when you already know one or two? Is it a fancy syntax? Is it an API? I do not think so.

A syntactic sugar is not the real matter of the programming art. It should be only a hammer for your nails. Usually, a new syntax is not so much different. I mean how often do you meet a brand new paradigm? There is imperative, functional, logic and whatever programming, but you have probably chosen your way already.

Modern IDEs can help you with the API of the new language. Again, API should not be an obstacle. But there is still a thing that you must be aware of...

I do not know of any real programming language that isolates a programmer from its inside behavior (by a real programming language I mean a language that is commonly used for developing long running applications). You always need to be aware of a memory model, of a garbage collection mechanism, of a just in time compilation, of a target system architecture, of registers size, of a class inner representation, of a variable size in bytes...

There are too many "of". I wonder when there is a language that allows developers to concentrate completely on the main problem. A friend of mine suggested that PHP is such a language but I do not agree with that. It is a language which leaves a field of corpses behind itself and must finish processing sooner than anybody reveals this fact.

I have a favorite programming language, which isolates me at most. It is in the functional languages family, and it is called Haskell. You can even write a GUI application in Haskell, but an application server would be a death match.

So good luck in those hard times and do your best for you not to forget any single language implementation detail...

1 comment:

  1. By this "(by a real programming language I mean a language that is commonly used for developing long running applications)" do you refer to any actual languague (such as PHP)? :)

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