There was one slightly geo related issue in language choices - to
find an excuse to draw geo back into this:
I was monkeying around with building a cellular automata simulation
(of rainfall) and I found java to be horrifically wasteful - hard
to conserve against cache misses. You can't express a series of
"structs" like in C or C++ or C# . If you wanted to build a sparse
matrix implementation, like lapac uses etc - you have to do it in C
as an external library.
Or fortran, perhaps :D
lapack in Java , hehe
Here is one of my favorite quotes on java ;)
“I spent several months programming in Java. Contrary to its author’s
prediction, it did not grow on me. I did not find any new insights -
for the first time in my life programming in a new language did not
bring me new insights. It keeps all the stuff that I never use in C++
- inheritance, virtuals - OO gook - and removes the stuff that I find
useful. It might be successful… but it has no intellectual value
whatsoever”
–Alexander Stepanov
Cheers
A.
On a vaguely related note - this language is accessible to small
children - if you want to inflict knowing how to program on them:
http://www.playfulinvention.com/rcx/software/index.html
If there's a broader relevance, it is perhaps that most people will
eventually probably be expected to have a basic literacy in
programming ... seems like the new lingua franca ... and perhaps a
best way to straddle cultural divides - more so than say all
learning esperanto...
- a
On Jan 21, 2008 4:05 PM, Landon Blake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I've got a lot of respect for the guys that code in languages like
C and
C++. Using one of those languages is right up there with brain
surgery.
(To think programmers used to be responsible for memory management all
on their own. Where is my garbage collection!)
I think I could learn and use C if I needed to, although I'm always
tempted to implement a system for managing "objects" whenever I use C
code.
I avoid C++ like the plague. :] It's a darn shame too, because
Inkscape,
one of my favorite FOSS programs, is written in C++. I bought a 900
page
book on C++, and I've even read it a few times, but I never
successfully
used the language. It did teach me a lot about how object-oriented
programming languages run under the hood. I never understood basic
memory management in computer programs until I read it in a C++ book.
That is a gem I'll treasure for a long time.
I guess I'm just addicted to the syntax sugar in languages like Java,
Python, and even Ruby. (I couldn't believe how easy it was to open a
text file in Ruby.)
Landon
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ] On Behalf Of Brandon
Whitehead
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 4:00 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Geowanking] RE: Geowanking Digest, Vol 50, Issue 33
>I'm in my late twenties, and my languages of choice are Java and
Python.
>(I dabble in Ruby for customization of Google SketchUp.)
>I'm guessing the old farts are using C, C++ or maybe Perl?
>I wonder what younger people are using?
I'm in your boat. Late 20's - Python & Java.
-Brandon
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