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I'm a language design buff, so you might be able to guess my biases: FP is good, OO is bad, every language should have higher-order functions, yadda yadda. I f

I'm a language design buff, so you might be able to guess my biases: FP is good, OO is bad, every language should have higher-order functions, yadda yadda. I finally decided to get a deeper knowledge of C, something I've been saying I "should do" for years. I'm learning it via Zed Shaw's Learn C The Hard Way and I'm very impressed by the language. It does what it does very well. I wouldn't use it for a complex web app, but it's a fine language for things that are small but in which quality (which includes performance) is extremely important. I'm growing to like C a lot, and I think people who don't bother to learn it are short-changing themselves in a major way. That said, there are a lot of great languages out there that are better-suited to high-level projects... so long as the concerns remain high-level.

hackinthebochs 14y ago
Interesting, I would have considered deep knowledge of C a prerequisite to being a language design buff. Did you have experience implementing languages?
- michaelochurch 14y ago
  No, most of my experience was with high-level languages like Haskell, Python, and Clojure, with my original interest being more in design than implementation. One of the reasons I'm learning C is to have a better grasp of implementation, and eventually (if needed) be able to competently implement languages. For most of my time, I focused more on user experience (syntax, type system, workflow) and its effects on development culture. Watching language choices make or break companies made me very opinionated. That said, as I get older, I'm finding it harder to call specific languages "good" or "bad". They all have their niches. Enterprise Java is horrible, but that's not James Gosling's fault.
e12e 14y ago
I'd be interested to hear what you think of D.
- michaelochurch 14y ago
  I don't know much about it. What's its niche? C's major win is the ability to explicitly manage (and, thereby, reason about) memory. Garbage collection is great but I tend to associate it with high-level languages like Python, Haskell and Clojure. I'm sure there is a niche for GC'd mid-level languages (e.g. Go) but I'm not yet experienced with them enough to know what it is.
swah 14y ago
What do you think about Factor?
- michaelochurch 14y ago
  Stack languages look really cool to me. I have no idea whether they're practical. For language beauty, the ones with simple syntax (e.g. Lisps, Forth, q) win. However, for a large production system, I'd be more inclined to use something with static typing. Static typing falls down in a different way with large systems-- compile speed-- but if the thing's not being changed on a regular basis, that's not a huge issue.

hackinthebochs 14y ago

Interesting, I would have considered deep knowledge of C a prerequisite to being a language design buff. Did you have experience implementing languages?

michaelochurch 14y ago
No, most of my experience was with high-level languages like Haskell, Python, and Clojure, with my original interest being more in design than implementation. One of the reasons I'm learning C is to have a better grasp of implementation, and eventually (if needed) be able to competently implement languages. For most of my time, I focused more on user experience (syntax, type system, workflow) and its effects on development culture. Watching language choices make or break companies made me very opinionated. That said, as I get older, I'm finding it harder to call specific languages "good" or "bad". They all have their niches. Enterprise Java is horrible, but that's not James Gosling's fault.

e12e 14y ago

I'd be interested to hear what you think of D.

michaelochurch 14y ago
I don't know much about it. What's its niche? C's major win is the ability to explicitly manage (and, thereby, reason about) memory. Garbage collection is great but I tend to associate it with high-level languages like Python, Haskell and Clojure. I'm sure there is a niche for GC'd mid-level languages (e.g. Go) but I'm not yet experienced with them enough to know what it is.

swah 14y ago

What do you think about Factor?

michaelochurch 14y ago
Stack languages look really cool to me. I have no idea whether they're practical. For language beauty, the ones with simple syntax (e.g. Lisps, Forth, q) win. However, for a large production system, I'd be more inclined to use something with static typing. Static typing falls down in a different way with large systems-- compile speed-- but if the thing's not being changed on a regular basis, that's not a huge issue.