This thread is getting interesting! A few comments, inline.
Joe Hourcle wrote:
On Mar 25, 2014, at 9:03 AM, Miles Fidelman wrote:
Come to think of it, there's nothing there to frame the intent and scope of the
book - is it aimed at librarians who write code, or at librarians who are
trying to guide people to topical material?
An excellent question, so I'm cc'ing the editors for the book, so maybe they
can answer.
(I suspect by the languages listed that it's the first one; the second would be so broad
that it might not be useful ... I'm having a difficult time coming up with justifications
for using Logo, IDL or Brainfuck in a library [1]). And the mention of "how a
specific language can be used to enhance library services and resources" might be a
clue, too)
Nice. I've always wanted to find a use for Brainfuck :-)
Either way, it sure seems like at least three framing topics are missing:
- a general overview of programming language types and characteristics (i.e.,
context for reading the other chapters)
- a history of programming languages (the family tree, if you will)
- programming environments, platforms, tools, libraries and repositories - a
language's ecosystem probably influences choice of language use as much as the
language itself
Agreed on all three ... in some cases, the main justification for using a
language is the ecosystem (eg, CPAN for Perl).
In some cases, it might be worth just assuming a library -- eg, do you want to
teach people (ECMA|J(ava)?|Live)Script, or just assume jQuery, so they can get
up to speed faster? (yes, I know, you then bring in the jQuery vs. MooTools
vs. every other JS library, but I think it's safe to say that jQuery is a
defacto standard these days)
Maybe PhoneGap for mobile apps.
- "non-language languages" - e.g., sql/nosql, spreadsheet macros and other
platforms that one builds on
Agreed on the need for SQL. NoSQL isn't really a language on its own; I'm not
aware of any specific general API, so I'd go with XPath & XSLT for discussing
non-relational data. Macro languages would be useful (and I'd assume the 'Basic'
proposal was actually for VBA, so you could create more complex MS Access databases)
Maybe CQL as well as SQL, and XQUERY for talking to XML databases.
I'd kind of differ on "NoSQL isn't really a language on it's own" - I'm
thinking, in particular, of CouchDB, CouchApps, and mashups composed
from RESTful APIs.
Maybe, this is more aptly framed as programming paradigms other than
traditional languages. God knows that an awful lot of useful
information is published in the form of mashups that mine data from
various databases and present that data on maps, or as other forms of
visualizations. And then there's the whole area of finding and mining
databases, for input into other tools (e.g., importing census data into
spreadsheets). This strikes me as more and more of what research
librarian do, and very little of it is done with traditional programming
languages, except maybe a little javascript glue.
And, as I type this, I realize that mathematical and statistical
languages probably have a place in such a book - SPSS, MATLAB, MACSYMA,
Mathematica, R, and so forth.
- Miles
-Joe
[1] okay, maybe Logo in the context of MakerSpaces, but still nothing on the
other two.
ps. I haven't trimmed this, so the editors can see some of the other comments
made.
Miles Fidelman
p.s. I wrote a book for ALA Editions, they were great to work with. The
acquisitions editor I worked with is now a Sr. Editor, so I expect they're
still good folks to work with.
Jason Bengtson wrote:
I'm also surprised not to see anything about the sql/nosql end of the equation.
Integral to a lot of apps and tools . . . at least from a web perspective (and
probably from others too).
Best regards,
Jason Bengtson, MLIS, MA
Head of Library Computing and Information Systems
Assistant Professor, Graduate College
Department of Health Sciences Library and Information Management
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
405-271-2285, opt. 5
405-271-3297 (fax)
[email protected]
http://library.ouhsc.edu
www.jasonbengtson.com
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On Mar 25, 2014, at 7:39 AM, Ian Ibbotson <[email protected]> wrote:
Going in the other direction from cobol and fortran -Fair warning - Putting
on java evangelist hat- :) I wonder if it might be worth suggesting to the
authors that they change java into "JVM Languages" and cover off Java,
Scala, Groovy,...(others). We've had lots of success in the GoKB(
http://gokb.org/) and KB+(https://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/News/kbplus/)
Knowledge Base projects using groovy on grails - Essentially all the
pre-built libraries and enterprise gubbins of Java, but with a more
ruby-esq idiom making it much more readable / less verbose / more
expressive, and integrating nicely with all that existing enterprise
infrastructure to boot.
The use of embedded languages in JVMs (Including javascript) means that the
use of Domain Specific Languages are becoming more and more widespread
under JVMs, and this seems (To me) an area where there is some real
advantage to having practitioners with real coding skills - Maybe not the
hardcore systems development stuff but certainly ability to tune and
configure software. Expressing things like business rules in DSLs (EG How
to choose a supplier for an item, or how to deduplicate a title) gives
librarians an opportunity to tune the behaviour of systems dynamically
without system level changes.
Owen (Who's always lurking around here somewhere) wears a (technical)
librarians hat and often dives into KB+ and GoKB code base to give me an
idea of whats going wrong along with bug reports, sometimes with a fix
attached. I think this kind of collaboration, where systems librarians /
end user representatives are able to review and comment on code is
incredibly powerful and it's certainly served us well in our library
projects.
Just a thought :)
Cheers,
Ian.
Ian Ibbotson
Director
Knowledge Integration Ltd
35 Paradise Street, Sheffield. S3 8PZ
T: 0114 273 8271
M: 07968 794 630
W: http://www.k-int.com
On 25 March 2014 12:22, Miles Fidelman <[email protected]> wrote:
Visual Basic is still going strong.
Conspicuous by their absence: COBOL and Fortran - also still going strong.
Miles Fidelman
Roy Tennant wrote:
Basic? Seriously? I mean, the very first language I learned, in the early
1980s, was BASIC. But come on. If you can find a person to write the
chapter I want to take them out behind the barn and, well, do them some
serious damage. Interpret that however you wish.
Roy
On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 8:08 PM, Ashley Blewer <[email protected]>
wrote:
Hi all,
Passing this along because it seems relevant to the interests of many on
this list!
See ya tomorrow or on the internet,
- Ashley
Fwd:
This is a call for book chapters for A Librarian’s Introduction to
Programming Languages to be published by ALA/ Neal-Schuman Publishing.
This book will look at a variety of programming languages with the intent
to familiarize readers with the reasons for using each language. The book
will cover practical, real world examples to illustrate how a specific
language can be used to enhance library services and resources.
The target audience includes current practitioners, administrators,
educators, and students.
Some potential topics to be included in the book are below.
● Basic
● C#
● Java
● Javascript
● Perl
● Python
● Ruby
We are also interested in other topics. For more information email the
editors:
Ron Brown [email protected] and Beth Thomsett-Scott
[email protected]
Apologies for cross posting.
Please feel free to share this announcement with other listservs and
interested parties.
--
Ashley Blewer
Fox Movietone Collection Project Cataloging Manager
Moving Image Research Collections
University of South Carolina
803.403.5013
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
