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the list left off perhaps the most important language for the web: javascript. and my proposed "problem" for it: web pages are not programmable.

by spot 13y ago

mattmanser 13y ago
It's only the most important one as it's the only one we're allowed to use. More like: Can functional paradigms be used in a procedural language
- icebraining 13y ago
  I think spot's formulation is closer to the original intent. The purpose was to create a language for web pages, not an exploration of functional paradigms in procedural languages.
- jerf 13y ago
  By the time Javascript was designed, having first-class functions or closures was not a radical concept. It had not penetrated to the mainstream languages yet, but it was already to the point where they were very nearly the last holdouts. Beyond that, Javascript did not particularly ship with any sophisticated FP stuff, and, really, doesn't even ship with any today. It may be nice that Underscore can be written, but for any language with any functional pretensions whatsoever, it shouldn't need to be written, because it ought to just be shipped with the stock language.
- herokusaki 13y ago
  Or more narrowly, can Self be made to look like Java?
hexasquid 13y ago
We don't want to rely on Java Applets or Flash
Nav_Panel 13y ago
It's actually in the source of the page, just commented out: Javascript: Java is scary. Also hidden in the source: Python: Modula-3 is scary. Curl: Lisp syntax is scary, and XML is redundant. Arc: Scheme has no libraries, and both could be denser. There are a lot of languages I haven't been able to figure out how to describe this way. Suggestions would be appreciated about any languages missing from the list. What I'm looking for is not exactly what motivated the language designer (Smalltalk was originally intended for children) but what niche the language first lodged in. What was the appeal of the language to its first users?
mamcx 13y ago
Or: Is possible to create a monoculture on top of a badly (non)designed language with not chance in hell to escape it?

the list left off perhaps the most important language for the web: javascript. and my proposed "problem" for it: web pages are not programmable.

by spot 13y ago

the list left off perhaps the most important language for the web: javascript. and my proposed "problem" for it: web pages are not programmable.

mattmanser 13y ago

It's only the most important one as it's the only one we're allowed to use. More like: Can functional paradigms be used in a procedural language

icebraining 13y ago
I think spot's formulation is closer to the original intent. The purpose was to create a language for web pages, not an exploration of functional paradigms in procedural languages.
jerf 13y ago
By the time Javascript was designed, having first-class functions or closures was not a radical concept. It had not penetrated to the mainstream languages yet, but it was already to the point where they were very nearly the last holdouts. Beyond that, Javascript did not particularly ship with any sophisticated FP stuff, and, really, doesn't even ship with any today. It may be nice that Underscore can be written, but for any language with any functional pretensions whatsoever, it shouldn't need to be written, because it ought to just be shipped with the stock language.
herokusaki 13y ago
Or more narrowly, can Self be made to look like Java?

hexasquid 13y ago

We don't want to rely on Java Applets or Flash

Nav_Panel 13y ago

It's actually in the source of the page, just commented out: Javascript: Java is scary. Also hidden in the source: Python: Modula-3 is scary. Curl: Lisp syntax is scary, and XML is redundant. Arc: Scheme has no libraries, and both could be denser. There are a lot of languages I haven't been able to figure out how to describe this way. Suggestions would be appreciated about any languages missing from the list. What I'm looking for is not exactly what motivated the language designer (Smalltalk was originally intended for children) but what niche the language first lodged in. What was the appeal of the language to its first users?

mamcx 13y ago

Or: Is possible to create a monoculture on top of a badly (non)designed language with not chance in hell to escape it?