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The thesis is: > if you want to expand your concept of what programming can be, one way to do it is by learning weird languages. Implicit in this advice is th
by lisper 5y ago
The thesis is:
> if you want to expand your concept of what programming can be, one way to do it is by learning weird languages.
Implicit in this advice is that programming is actually a useful endeavor and not just a puzzle like sudoku that you engage in mainly to pass the time. And I'm saying that the weird-language heuristic is as likely to lead you to something sudoku-like, where you face a lot of interesting intellectual challenges, but at the end of the day you don't actually get any leverage towards doing anything that is actually useful, as it is to lead you to something with actual utility.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoAbsolutely. However, I don't see a path from that to "XX is a (bad|not good) language".
- lisper 5y agoThere is no such thing as a good language or a bad language an an absolute sense. There are only languages that provide you with more leverage towards a certain goal and languages that provide you with less. Is brainfuck a good language or a bad one? If your goal is to write a high performance back-end for a web site, it's probably bad. If your goal is to pass some time trying to solve an intellectually challenging puzzle, it's probably good. But in general programming is viewed as something one does in order to achieve some practical purpose, not just to while away the hours. And with respect to that goal, "seek out weird languages" seems like a poor heuristic to me.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoI was quoting you saying "But that doesn't make C++ a good language."