3 ms·

This course sounds like a long and mostly correct histories of programming languages. Also consider visiting http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incom

This course sounds like a long and mostly correct histories of programming languages. Also consider visiting http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html?m=1 http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-m... For a brief, mostly incorrect overview of programming languages.

Syzygies 6y ago
> "a monad is a monoid in the category of endofunctors, what's the problem?" Everywhere else he had to invent stuff to parody the language. He presents Haskell straight up.
- bradrn 6y ago
  As a Haskeller, I feel obliged to say that that is a parody. A self-parody, perhaps, but a parody nonetheless. In reality, the vast majority of Haskellers (including me!) wouldn’t have a clue what that sentence means — but we’re content to use monads nonetheless, because having a knowledge of the category theory underlying monads is unnecessary if you just want to use them in Haskell.
  - goto11 6y ago
    Yeah, in reality Haskellers are more like: A monad is just like a burrito, whats the problem?
    - the_benno 6y ago
      Except that is explicitly a parody/critique of what Brent Yorgey called the "monad tutorial fallacy": https://byorgey.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/abstraction-intuition-and-the-monad-tutorial-fallacy/ https://byorgey.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/abstraction-intuiti... This is the post that originally coined that phrase.
      - goto11 6y ago
        Yeah, in reality Haskellers are more like: A monad is just like a spacesuit, whats the problem?
iainctduncan 6y ago
"1970 - Guy Steele and Gerald Sussman create Scheme. Their work leads to a series of "Lambda the Ultimate" papers culminating in "Lambda the Ultimate Kitchen Utensil." This paper becomes the basis for a long running, but ultimately unsuccessful run of late night infomercials. Lambdas are relegated to relative obscurity until Java makes them popular by not having them." OMG, brilliant
lealanko 6y ago
For a more detailed look at the timeline of a programming language feature in the same vein, you may also enjoy the retrospective on Foozles: https://wiki.hh.se/wg211/images/5/58/Foozles.pdf https://wiki.hh.se/wg211/images/5/58/Foozles.pdf
mitchbob 6y ago
"1958 - John McCarthy and Paul Graham invent LISP. Due to high costs caused by a post-war depletion of the strategic parentheses reserve LISP never becomes popular[1]. In spite of its lack of popularity, LISP (now "Lisp" or sometimes "Arc") remains an influential language in "key algorithmic techniques such as recursion and condescension"[2]."
1vuio0pswjnm7 6y ago
Seems only meniton of Snobol is in the comments. Hard to ignore it because Snobol was the first to use associative arrays ("tables"). Awk copied this, then Perl, etc. I do not use Python. I love Snobol because it has an assembly-like feel to it. Much faster than Python.
- dreamcompiler 6y ago
  Icon (the successor to Snobol) was one of the few languages that enlarged my brain. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon_(programming_language) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon_(programming_language)
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 6y ago
  /love/s/Snobol/Spitbol/

Syzygies 6y ago

> "a monad is a monoid in the category of endofunctors, what's the problem?" Everywhere else he had to invent stuff to parody the language. He presents Haskell straight up.

bradrn 6y ago
As a Haskeller, I feel obliged to say that that is a parody. A self-parody, perhaps, but a parody nonetheless. In reality, the vast majority of Haskellers (including me!) wouldn’t have a clue what that sentence means — but we’re content to use monads nonetheless, because having a knowledge of the category theory underlying monads is unnecessary if you just want to use them in Haskell.
- goto11 6y ago
  Yeah, in reality Haskellers are more like: A monad is just like a burrito, whats the problem?
  - the_benno 6y ago
    Except that is explicitly a parody/critique of what Brent Yorgey called the "monad tutorial fallacy": https://byorgey.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/abstraction-intuition-and-the-monad-tutorial-fallacy/ https://byorgey.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/abstraction-intuiti... This is the post that originally coined that phrase.
    - goto11 6y ago
      Yeah, in reality Haskellers are more like: A monad is just like a spacesuit, whats the problem?

iainctduncan 6y ago

"1970 - Guy Steele and Gerald Sussman create Scheme. Their work leads to a series of "Lambda the Ultimate" papers culminating in "Lambda the Ultimate Kitchen Utensil." This paper becomes the basis for a long running, but ultimately unsuccessful run of late night infomercials. Lambdas are relegated to relative obscurity until Java makes them popular by not having them." OMG, brilliant

lealanko 6y ago

For a more detailed look at the timeline of a programming language feature in the same vein, you may also enjoy the retrospective on Foozles: https://wiki.hh.se/wg211/images/5/58/Foozles.pdf https://wiki.hh.se/wg211/images/5/58/Foozles.pdf

mitchbob 6y ago

"1958 - John McCarthy and Paul Graham invent LISP. Due to high costs caused by a post-war depletion of the strategic parentheses reserve LISP never becomes popular[1]. In spite of its lack of popularity, LISP (now "Lisp" or sometimes "Arc") remains an influential language in "key algorithmic techniques such as recursion and condescension"[2]."

1vuio0pswjnm7 6y ago

Seems only meniton of Snobol is in the comments. Hard to ignore it because Snobol was the first to use associative arrays ("tables"). Awk copied this, then Perl, etc. I do not use Python. I love Snobol because it has an assembly-like feel to it. Much faster than Python.

dreamcompiler 6y ago
Icon (the successor to Snobol) was one of the few languages that enlarged my brain. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon_(programming_language) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon_(programming_language)
1vuio0pswjnm7 6y ago
/love/s/Snobol/Spitbol/