5 ms·
There once was a language that compiled in milliseconds - you pressed a single button and your changes were instantly in front of you. What's more a clever sepa
by danielvf 9y ago
There once was a language that compiled in milliseconds - you pressed a single button and your changes were instantly in front of you. What's more a clever separation of data and code meant that this instant reload would show your newly compiled app with your data still in place, and you looking at the same screen as before, exactly where you had left it, except powered by your new code.
This separation between data and code also enabled trivial scaling for huge system, as well as the opposite - hundreds of apps, each belonging to a different customer could share the same system - decades before docker or k8 was born.
This language was written when Objects were the only thing people talked about. In a counter-cultural move, the language's author wrote the entire standard library as only functions. The language could be easily learned - just look at the list of functions for the one that does what you want.
It's cross platform - the user interfaces you build work on all platforms with a single codebase.
Its combination of scaling, quick development iterations, and ease of use powered the rise of fourth largest tech company in the world today. In fact, just a single app written in this language has more than a billion people using it every day.
Darkly, however, the name of this language may not be spoken here. Even by praising it obliquely, I risk censure, and my perceived value of my work being cut by eighty percent in penalty.
I will not name it.
- mabynogy 9y agoSmalltalk
- danielvf 9y agoNope! Smalltalk is a classy language. This is not regarded as classy language.
- jackhack 9y agoerlang. Functional. Cross-platform (it has it's own vm, of course), instant deployment and hot rollback (via a/b images), etc. Your puzzle-as-description was very cleverly written and an enjoyable exercise! Bravo!
- danielvf 9y agoCool guess! But that's still not it! (Though I have used this language's hot reloading features to win a faux stock market trading war, by being able to swap in newly written market making strategies on the fly) Here’s a hint - its been around since before flip phones, and has been a top ten language on stack overflow since the site was started.
- quickthrower2 9y agoOk top 10 languages 2017 for SO are: JavaScript SQL Java C# Python PHP C++ C TypeScript Ruby The data reload in place has thrown me. I am not sure any of the above do this. Maybe I am wrong though.
- lucozade 9y agoHN doesn't dislike Erlang. You only see unequivocal detestation for PHP and VB. My guess would be PHP although there's a reasonable argument that most of the Fortune 500 runs on VB.
- mercer 9y agoIf anything Erlang has been getting more attention recently (usually in the form of Elixir/Phoenix, but still).
- kujua 9y agoI guess it is C++, the language I used for more than 10 years around the 90s.
- lucozade 9y agoI can safely say that if it's C++, and changes are instantly in front of you, then it's not the C++ application I used to maintain. Unless the definition of instantly has changed since I kicked the compile off.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- elefantastisch 9y agoThe language is PHP. The instant reload and not losing your place is because changes to the server do not affect what's in the browser. Customers sharing a system works because you can just have directories of PHP files. PHP was developed without any kind of object system. PHP is completely cross-platform because the UI is in the browser. PHP powered Facebook. PHP has a very poor reputation here. PHP is in the top 10 tags on StackOverflow.
- danielvf 9y agoBingo! You got it!
- lj3 9y agoPHP 4, maybe? My experience with PHP 5+ has not been any of the things you mention.
- danielvf 9y agoMost PHP frameworks these days are a horror show of overcomplexity, precisely because they are trying to write Java in a language that is not Java. In my crotchety, old man opinion, people have been trying very hard to make PHP like a blub, overly verbose language, and trying to hide the things that made it great.
- _diyu 9y agoWhat kind of things make it great? I only see downsides or at the very least poorly implemented upsides that most other languages only have.
- quickthrower2 9y ago> The instant reload and not losing your place is because changes to the server do not affect what's in the browser. Nitpick: That's a HTTP 'REST' feature, surely? The feature then is that PHP doesn't chuck out your sessions because the code has changed. But then other platforms can do this.
- howToLearnSpark 9y ago-> compiled in milliseconds -> separation between data and code -> trivial scaling for huge system -> hundreds of apps, each belonging to a different customer could share the same system -> decades before docker -> standard library as only functions. -> It's cross platform - the user interfaces you build work on all platforms with a single codebase. -> this language has more than a billion people using it every day. -> the name of this language may not be spoken here can only be PHP
- with_a_herring 9y agoIs it Visual Basic ? VB is taboo in many tech communities.
- quickthrower2 9y agoSounds a bit like Javascript, am I right?