On Tue, 2003-04-01 at 07:29, Curtis L. Olson wrote: > David Megginson writes: > > It looks like Python's days are numbered; I just read on Slashdot > > about a programming language that uses *only* whitespace: > > > > http://compsoc.dur.ac.uk/whitespace/ > > > > I expect that most current Python programmers will have switched over > > by the end of the year. > > > > Any die-hard fanatics left over will no doubt write a Punctuation > > programming language, using only the characters [EMAIL PROTECTED]&*() (above 0-9 > > on the U.S. keyboard), as a pure act of spite to try to split the Perl > > community. > > One real advantage of this langauge is that it's source files compress > really well. This can save a lot of disk space, especially with a > project the size of Flight/Sim/TerraGear. As soon as the wsfront > utility is finished, we could seriously consider porting the entire > project over. Compile times can really benefit too. WS doesn't use > tokens as part of it's syntax, and a large portion of a typical > compiler is devoted to parsing tokens, hashing them, and ultimately > just translating them into a number anyway. WS skips this entire > level of indirection which can be a huge performance boost and can > drastically reduce the compiler's memory foot print. This also > enables the programmer to write much more direct and straightforward > code. > > The only issue I can see up front is on windows ... typically windows > will misinterpret certain combinations of white space characters. > This could be one slightly sticky problem, at least until MS fixes > this bug. Speaking of which, WS sneakily avoids another major bug in > windows. Because it doesn't directly use characters, it avoids > windows problems with lack of case sensitivety, and isn't affected by > it's tendency to change certain capitalizations. > > Best of all WS is intuitive and not encumbered by huge unwieldy > standards bodies who drag their heels on every good idea or who try to > lock you into proprietary solutions. > > Some groups are complaining that the name of this language isn't > culturally neutral. They are suggesting perhaps "BackSpace" would be > a better name since this is often the most frequently used character > in the WhiteSpace language. > > We'll have to keep on eye on the development of this language. If > nothing else we could use it as our default embedded scripting > language.
If this isn't incentive enough to keep FG cvs working I don't know what is. It's clear you've had entirely too much time on your hands today. ;-) > > Regards, > > Curt. -- Tony Peden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
