"Simple" Languages in FreeBSD

[doug at safeport.com]

I am only responding to a very small part of this thread. Back in the day I used 
machine language, basic, fortran, algol (forced as I maintained a compiler), 
snobol, and lisp (which I never really got the hang of).

In my unix life I use sh, perl, and python. Perl is kind of like snobol, both 
had/have contests where the goal is either: I can do it with less statements, or 
bet you can't figure out what this does.

At the end of the day if you like trying stuff and want/need an object oriented 
language ruby and python seem good, I bypassed ruby for no good reason. My 
problem with perl is when I go back to look at a script I wrote 2+ months ago my 
ability to figure it out is inversely proportional to how far I have strayed 
from having it look like C. So far in python I can go back and extend or modify 
things. This is clearly just me but it is is line with the general nature of the 
languages.

The one python thing I will comment on is the construction:

> Besides, Python, however logical it is, may be unpredictable. For example:
>
> In [1]: a=99
> In [2]: b=999
> In [3]: a is 99
> Out[3]: True
> In [4]: b is 999
> Out[4]: False

I have never used 'is' but '==' is used for numerical comparasons and 'b == 999' 
does the logical thing. Unless there is some symantic reason to the contrary, I 
think 'b is 999' could be submitted as a bug.

With my first/second generation language experience I have a hard time with 
object stuff. I am current starting to implement a billing system in python. I 
have not picked a GUI but am leaning toward gtk3. I guess I will see how I feel 
about python in a bit.

Since all my programming is FreeBSD based, I like perl and python as first 
choices because both are just there if you have built a workstation. That 
probably also changes as the GUI gets tossed into the mix.


_____
Douglas Denault
http://www.safeport.com
doug at safeport.com
Voice: 301-217-9220
   Fax: 301-217-9277