Re: Euphoria's identity/philosophy -- Where is the focus?
- Posted by Shian_Lee Nov 17, 2014
- 2535 views
OK then... I didn't mention anything new.
Just wanted to add:
1. The subject here is "philosophy" - after all any vector/struct/list/array/sequence is just 0's and 1's. But Euphoria is ALL about sequences and the amazing simplicity of manipulating them.
Java - from my point of view, is a headache by itself. I get truly bored from Object-Oriented stuff, but this is personal. Yet, when you think about Java you think about Objects; when you think about Euphoria you think about Sequences. Sequences are the identity of Euphoria, the same way Objects are the identity of Java.
2. About different coding styles: I believe that the philosophy of the language itself has the responsibility to "put an end" to how many built-in options the language will supply.
Since I'm not a programmer, I am thinking from another point of view:
In the army, and specially the air force, and in a lot of electrical and mechanical equipment - designers finally realized that maintaining-time is more crucial then development-time.
It means that instead of 35 different kinds of screws they use only 3. And it means that instead of 100 different tools - jet engine can be replaced with few tools.
Engineers realized that as many options as you have to deal with - to learn, to remember, and to use - as less efficient and reliable is maintainability.
Technology is technology, and the human brain is the same. Also in programming maintaining-time is crucial - much more then development-time. As less options as you have to remember and learn - as quicker and reliable is maintainability.
The air force had to learn this fact in the hard way: many people died because of the complexity of the mechanical design. Jets could not be ready on time. But now they removed any unnecessary option and complexity, so it's possible to fix big problems in a very short time.
I hope that now and in the future Euphoria will remain simple. In real life, simple control panels are the key for saving human lives. Simplicity always wins at last.
But I believe that you all know that already. Thanks.
