On Sat, Dec 5, 2020, at 10:25 PM, cigar562hfsp952f...@icebubble.org wrote: > > It would be nice if there was some way to translate between technology > intended for idiots and technology intended for experts. Imagine if, > for example, every Android app automatically exported its functionality > over 9P. The cell phone idiots would have all their flashy toasts and > swipes, but the apps would still be usable by command line nerds.
I recently learned most Amiga programs had "Rexx ports". They'd accept commands in the scripting language Rexx (or rather Arexx) from other programs or the user. It's another way of doing the same thing. It also avoids some GUI bloat: if a program wanted to open a file selector, it would call the file manager to do it. > > PS: I concur with the late Dijkstra that the programming language(s) > > you learn shape(s) your ability to construct abstractions in your > > mind. We're kind of safe for as long as C remains the base language > > That sounds like a variant of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (which applies > to natural languages) as applied to computer languages. I don't know the hypothesis, but very much agree different languages influence how you think and even feel. > > I had an electrical engineering friend, back at university, who used > > array subscripts in C because he couldn't get his head around > > pointers. Like me, his migration was from Pascal to C. > > Pascal has pointers, too, and they make alot more sense than pointers in > C. To me, C pointers are just another way of indexing the Great Memory Array -- it's a union of arrays of all different types. ;) I am much more comfortable with the syntax of array subscripts, too. I came to C from BASIC and assembly language. ------------------------------------------ 9fans: 9fans Permalink: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/T3fd028fcf2eeb24c-M45f25095dd8e2da7aa645f47 Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription
