On Wednesday, 6 April 2016 at 13:15:48 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu
wrote:
I just got word about Sparrow (from its creator no less):
presentation_offline_Sparrow.pdf - https://db.tt/m2WwpxIY
Speak.mp4 - https://db.tt/RDmrlEu7
ThesisLucTeo.pdf - https://db.tt/1ylGHuc1
An interesting language that shares a lot of D's vision and
features. The languages differ in a few aspects: Sparrow has a
much more flexible syntax allowing a variety of custom
operators. (I happen to disagree that's a good thing as I
believe highly flexible syntax easily leads to transmission
noise code). On the plus side Sparrow has a smoother
integration of compile-time vs. run-time computation, which
makes it a bit easier to transition from one to another.
Another feature we could consider adding to D is a simple
definition of concepts as complex Boolean predicates. That's
essentially identical to isForwardRange etc. etc. but makes for
simpler use of these predicates.
Andrei
I came from the R world and I have been playing the game of
flitting between R and C++; using C++ (through RCpp) to speed up
slow things in R for some time and I have been looking for a
better solution. This is one of the reasons I am in the D
community.
For some time I have been considering a problem to do with
creating tables with unbounded types, one of the failed attempts
is here:
https://forum.dlang.org/thread/[email protected]?page=1
I then exchanged emails with Lucian, Sparrows creator and he very
quickly and simply outlined the solution to the problem.
Thereafter I read his PhD thesis - one of the most informative
texts in computer science I have read and very well written.
At the moment, there are lots of languages attempting to solve
the dynamic-static loop, being able to have features inherent in
dynamic programming languages, while keeping the safety and
performance that comes with a static compiled programming
language, and then doing so in a language that doesn't cause your
brain to bleed. The "One language to rule them all" motif of
Julia has hit the rocks; one reason is because they now realize
that their language is being held back because the compiler
cannot infer certain types for example:
http://www.johnmyleswhite.com/notebook/2015/11/28/why-julias-dataframes-are-still-slow/
A language that can create arbitrary complex programs is the kind
of thing that could transform the landscape of computing. I don't
think D should be left out and should take Sparrow very seriously
indeed.
My two pence
