1. Re: Euphoria's Future
IMO the MAJOR problem with Euphoria is the lack of a way to modularize the
code easily, and in a way that relative novices can benefit from.
There are a dozen, maybe 2 dozen programmers on the list that do all the
work on the user libraries. They understand the way Eu works intimately,
and they are good programmers altogether.
There are a magnitude more that are on the level of being VB hacks - self-
taught, one step away from BASIC types. Or maybe their experience is in a
different language, different enough that Eu's structure throws them. Or
whatever. Some of these people might want to contribute, but either don't
know how, or just have no interest in slogging away at trying to interpret
someone else's code.
Heck, I'm that way. I could basically hack my way through "Hello World" in
C, and maybe make a little tougher program if given enough time and
motivation, but I don't know enough about any OS, programming language,
algorithm, or computer science theory to feel comfortable taking on a huge
project by myself. And I sure am not comfortable trying to read someone
else's code and extend or modify it.
But.... give someone like me the tools to be able to write a module for a
larger app, and I'd be willing to try it. And I bet there are lots of
people like that. I might be able handle writing a small program that plugs
into a larger part. I'd certainly be willing to try, and if I couldn't do
it, maybe, possibly I would eventually learn how.
I realize I'm talking about a holy grail of CS here. It's been tried
before. I also reallize a larger problem with cooperative projects is
getting some kind of documentation about what would be expected of a module
in interfacing with the other parts, and the formation of some kind of
development plan for an app or library. That's a Computer Science and maybe
a cultural issue that RDS can't solve without divine intervention. But as
Eu now stands, the language doesn't even TRY to be a help in modularizing
code. It stands neutral - the include files are about the best you get.
David Cuny once said that namespaces would be a start toward
modularization. Or at least I understood him that way. The one thing in Eu
that would grab my interest, and HOLD it, would be an easy (relatively)
method of modularizing code. The next best thing would be namespaces. If
you saw modularization, I think Eu would start to pick up steam
exponentially.
