M
mike420
David said:You know I think that this thread has so far set a comp.lang.* record for
civilitiy in the face of a massively cross-posted language comparison
thread. I was even wondering if it was going to die a quiet death, too.
When cross-posting, people try to be more responsible, avoiding
making incorrect claims that will not be tolerated by the larger
reader community (like Python is very slow, C is inherently
insecure, Lispers are stupid, etc.) That's why there are usually
more balanced and less bigoted opinions expressed in such threads.
Also, I think cross-posting benefits creative people. E.g.
I noticed that the recent thread "Python syntax in Lisp and
Scheme" tought many Pythonistas and Haskellers about macros,
while many Lispers learned about "yield" and that the
usual examples of macros like UNWIND-PROTECT and its
friend WITH-OPEN-FILE do not have to be macros at all,
if your fingers can manage to type the magic 6 letters.
(OK, the syntax is better without those magic letters, but
it's the only difference. If you want to demostrate the real
power of macros, show code introspection.)
If you only program from 9 to 5, and it's 2 months till your
retirement, and you think you don't need such exposure to new
ideas from other language groups, it's best you killfile
all crossposted articles, or whatever, just don't whine.
OTOH, such idea exposure could have prevented such big
mistakes like C#, Mozart/Oz, XML++, ARC and others.