[racket] The value of a language

From: Grant Rettke (grettke at acm.org)
Date: Wed May 9 16:31:35 EDT 2012

Java doesn't have a nice module system but most people use IoC
containers for the same thing.

On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 3:16 PM, J. Ian Johnson <ianj at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> The abstractions and protections an API can provide are entirely fueled by the language its implementation (and its consumers) is written in, however. Is this not the case?
> -Ian
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Grant Rettke" <grettke at acm.org>
> To: "racket" <users at racket-lang.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 3:42:06 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: [racket] The value of a language
>
> Hi,
>
> Hope this is on topic, if it is not a substantive contribution I apologize.
>
> I just want to share a conversation from work. Bunch of experienced
> developers who are all very thoughtful reached the conclusion that the
> most important thing in a language choice is the APIs that come with
> it. Basically talking through it, that is the thing that speeds up
> work, and people can basically "think in any language they like" and
> then "mentally compile it down" to whatever is the implementation
> language. I generally agree in a corporate environment because you do
> want save your customers time and therefore money and I have never
> tried a non-mainstream language there such that I had real evidence
> there is a more productive way to do things.
>
> This was the same day that I finally read about syntax/parse and was
> thinking about how much nicer it would be to use that than the
> plumbing work I had to do to get nice error reporting, so perhaps I
> was more struck with their observation. It was just funny to hear
> everybody keep saying "the language doesn't matter" because it is so
> different than how I think, and how I think other lispers think, and
> even PLT people in general.
>
> I thought this was a funny coincidence because I wanted to talk about
> how great syntax/parse, and well I did talk to my one buddy about it
> :).
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Grant
>
> --
> http://www.wisdomandwonder.com/
> ACM, AMA, COG, IEEE
> ____________________
>  Racket Users list:
>  http://lists.racket-lang.org/users



-- 
http://www.wisdomandwonder.com/
ACM, AMA, COG, IEEE


Posted on the users mailing list.