Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 16 May 2001, Greg McCarroll wrote:

 I don't think Perl 6 can be a tremendous leap forward, not because
 of RFC's along the lines of `Perl must stay Perl', but because
 the next leap forward is VisualPerl which will be as much about
 IDE as core language. Now lets not get hung up on the IDE bit
 of that statement, its more about how people build programs
 than the interface they use, the IDE merely focuses them towards
 a certain methodology of building software.

Greg, I was wondering if you've used Glade with Perl.  I think it's
everything that VisualBasic is.  It allows you very simple access to the
vast range of really complex components and provides very simple access to
the code both via generated 'only edit me if you know what you're doing'
code and 'ignore the rest of the program and just write what you
want me to do when you  click here' callbacks.

This of course comes with all the advantages and disadvantages of such an
approach.  It's very easy and quick to build a GUI that functions well and
stops you making so many GUI bloopers, but it's a very fixed approach that
doesn't lend itself to too much dynamic GUI creation.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
 perl is my itch
 (Simon, did you recently do an advertising campaign for divorce laywers?)




Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Piers Cawley

Greg McCarroll [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 * Leon Brocard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
  Coo, coo, see the fabled perl6, remark how it looks just like perl5,
  wonder if anything's different and if there's a point to all this ;-)
 
 Blasphemy ahead ..
 
 I don't think Perl 6 can be a tremendous leap forward, not because
 of RFC's along the lines of `Perl must stay Perl', but because
 the next leap forward is VisualPerl which will be as much about
 IDE as core language. Now lets not get hung up on the IDE bit
 of that statement, its more about how people build programs
 than the interface they use, the IDE merely focuses them towards
 a certain methodology of building software.
 
 And just to complete my final blasphemy, Visual Basic, may have
 a shit language behind it, it may have performance problems, 
 it may be very limited and may force you to implement the guts
 as of any serious program you write as C/C++ DLLs but
 is still the most impressive implementation of a programming 
 language/dialect that I have ever seen, barring one or two
 domain specific languages, such as the visualisation software
 which I have forgotten the name of.
 

I tried to use VB once. I kept thinking Why isn't this as good as
Interface Builder is on NeXTSTEP? Actually, I find myself thinking
that when I use almost any IDE...


-- 
Piers Cawley
www.iterative-software.com




Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Piers Cawley

Paul Makepeace [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 On Wed, May 16, 2001 at 10:06:22PM +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote:
  And just to complete my final blasphemy, Visual Basic, may have
  a shit language behind it, it may have performance problems, 
  it may be very limited and may force you to implement the guts
  as of any serious program you write as C/C++ DLLs but
  is still the most impressive implementation of a programming 
  language/dialect that I have ever seen,
 
 You clearly haven't used Delphi. It is *streets* ahead of VB. Not
 only that they provide source to their components. Not only that,
 Object Pascal is possibly one of the best practical OO languages
 in existence. Their component model just rocks. And their editor
 is fantastic.
 
 Delphi rules.

Still not as good Interface Builder + Objective C + AppKit +
NeXTSTEP... 

-- 
Piers Cawley
www.iterative-software.com




Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Greg McCarroll

* Simon Cozens ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
 On Wed, May 16, 2001 at 10:06:22PM +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote:
  of RFC's along the lines of `Perl must stay Perl', but because
  the next leap forward is VisualPerl which will be as much about
  IDE as core language. Now lets not get hung up on the IDE bit
  of that statement

 So, let me get this right - you want to discuss something which is
 equal value IDE and core language, without discussing the IDE, yes? :)


Yip, i want to discuss the line down the middle between the IDE and
the Language/Engine. The original post meant to state that the only way
Perl could leap forward in a way that would shock/surprise people would
be to significantly change the way people worked with the language.

Object orientation was one such shift, Visual Basic/Delphi was another
such shift (and i'm not just talking about the GUI builder bit). In
fact high level languages with text editors is another.

--
Greg McCarroll  http://www.mccarroll.uklinux.net



Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Greg McCarroll

* Nathan Torkington ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
 Greg McCarroll writes:
  I don't think Perl 6 can be a tremendous leap forward, not because
  of RFC's along the lines of `Perl must stay Perl', but because
  the next leap forward is VisualPerl which will be as much about
  IDE as core language. Now lets not get hung up on the IDE bit
  of that statement, its more about how people build programs
  than the interface they use, the IDE merely focuses them towards
  a certain methodology of building software.

 Are you drunk, McCarroll, or just smoking crack? :-)


Me drink?, and my point was about what would shock/surprise
the masses with Perl 6, but as we've started down the visual
component crack smoking road lets continue 

 It's a wonderful fantasy, but the only type of problem I solve that
 could fit that approach are those tedious CGI+database CRUD things.

I see it more for data munging and small tools. I also think its got
potential for allowing the unwashed masses to build their data
munging / general tools without knowing too much Perl.

 Everything else requires original thought and invention, and

Sure and if it can be reused, implement it as a component so
it can later be snapped together by someone who will never appreciate
it.

 I'll chew
 my left nut off before I believe that the fantasy of assembly-line
 software allows for that.

Can we hold you to that? It would give us a good name for the project

 gnat   = gnat needs another testicle ;-)


  the most impressive implementation of a programming language/dialect
  that I have ever seen

 It may be a steamy sweaty pile of diarrhoea, but it's an IMPRESSIVE
 steamy sweaty pile of diarrhoea.


Greg

p.s. I have never used Delphi.


--
Greg McCarroll  http://www.mccarroll.uklinux.net




Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Philip Newton

Paul Makepeace wrote:
 The - to .  conversion [...] will be a wonderful thing.

To be honest, I never understood the point of that conversion. Is it an
attempt to make Perl look more like VB? Or like Java? Or trying to save
keystrokes? Simplify the lexer?

The array seemed fine to me the way it was.

Cheers,
Philip
-- 
Philip Newton [EMAIL PROTECTED]
All opinions are my own, not my employer's.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.



Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread David Cantrell

On Thu, May 17, 2001 at 01:26:17AM +0100, Piers Cawley wrote:

 I tried to use VB once. I kept thinking Why isn't this as good as
 Interface Builder is on NeXTSTEP? Actually, I find myself thinking
 that when I use almost any IDE...

Heh.  Same here, although if you discount Interface Builder, VB is very
good indeed.  I haven't done enough Delphi work to be qualified to talk
about their interface, but first impressions were good.

I like to think of VB and Java as doing the same sort of job. They're
very good for the pretty interface bits, but need a Real Language to do
the real work - C for VB, perl/python/C for Java.

I was, however, thoroughly infuriated by Interface Builder on Mac OS X.
It is not at all obvious how it should work with Project Builder.  I am,
however, more infuriated by OS X itself, and its updates which break
everything.  Grumble. Mutter.

-- 
David Cantrell | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

 If a job's worth doing, it's worth dieing for



Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Damian Conway

Now I'm not buying into the argument on either side, but it does remind
me of a lovely quote by Australian programming legend Alan Kennington:

Eiffel is some sort of avant-garde French computing
movement which believes that programming is reactionary
and oppressive.  Instead, they see the future of computing
as lying in broad strokes of the mouse to communicate
the software developer's creative desires.  The Eiffel
system then writes a program for the computing artist.
As is typical of French ideas, Eiffel appeals to those
sections of the middle class eho can't remember what
work was like, and don't particularly want to be reminded.

;-)

Damian





Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Dave Hodgkinson

David Cantrell [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 Indys are very nice indeed.  However, I think I got a pretty good deal
 when I swapped mine for a loaded Sun SS1000e :-)

Sellout!

-- 
Dave Hodgkinson, http://www.hodgkinson.org
Editor-in-chief, The Highway Star   http://www.deep-purple.com
  Interim CTO, web server farms, technical strategy
   



Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Chris Benson

On Thu, May 17, 2001 at 10:13:23AM +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote:

 p.s. I have never used Delphi.

scores 8/10 as a BD language (it *is* related to Pascal :-)

scores 9/10 for does-what-you-expect

OTOH the documentation (when I used it) scored -1.

(Whereas VB3 (or was it VB4) scored -INFINITY because it would
permanently change the size of windows on it's own initiative and 
of course be trashed by every single piece of s/ware that installed 
a .DLL)

-- 
Chris Benson
 if you can't do it in Perl in half-an-hour it's not worth doing.



Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Dave Hodgkinson

Robin Szemeti [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 you see quite a few go on Yahoo .. Indys seem to be about 100 quid,

OK, that's slightly more than the shipping from Londres to Baaf...

-- 
Dave Hodgkinson, http://www.hodgkinson.org
Editor-in-chief, The Highway Star   http://www.deep-purple.com
  Interim CTO, web server farms, technical strategy
   



Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Paul Makepeace

On Thu, May 17, 2001 at 01:27:32AM +0100, Piers Cawley wrote:
  Delphi rules.
 
 Still not as good Interface Builder + Objective C + AppKit +
 NeXTSTEP... 

Having used both, I totally disagree. YMMV of course :-)

Interface Builder is damn good but plenty of stupid shit in it (why
am I setting properties in awakeFromNib when I could set it in IB,
but they're greyed out?)

Paul, can't decide to love or hate Obj-C



Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Paul Makepeace

On Thu, May 17, 2001 at 12:59:53PM +0200, Philip Newton wrote:
 Paul Makepeace wrote:
  The - to .  conversion [...] will be a wonderful thing.
 
 To be honest, I never understood the point of that conversion. Is it an
 attempt to make Perl look more like VB? Or like Java? Or trying to save
 keystrokes? Simplify the lexer?

*tokes hard* _fewer characters, man!_

- makes my right wrist click since I never got the hang of the left
shift key in a general way. It just looks... nicer.

/imo

Paul



[gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-16 Thread Leon Brocard

Coo, coo, see the fabled perl6, remark how it looks just like perl5,
wonder if anything's different and if there's a point to all this ;-)

- Forwarded message from Nathan Torkington [EMAIL PROTECTED] -

From: Nathan Torkington [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 15:32:46 -0600
X-Mailer: VM 6.92 under Emacs 20.7.1

Damian's writing a series of articles parallel to Larry's Apocalypses.
These Exegesis articles will show full perl6 programs, with
commentary exlaining the new features.

The first Exegesis (numbered 2, to keep in sync with Larry) shows a
perl6 version of a binary tree program from the Perl Cookbook.

  http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/05/08/exegesis2.html

Nat



- End forwarded message -

-- 
Leon Brocard.http://www.astray.com/
Iterative Software...http://www.iterative-software.com/

... Borg? Where? I don't se*(#$#..NO CARRIER





Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-16 Thread Nathan Torkington

Leon Brocard writes:
 Coo, coo, see the fabled perl6, remark how it looks just like perl5,
 wonder if anything's different and if there's a point to all this ;-)

Jihad on Leon, anyone? :-)

perl6 is supposed to look a lot like perl5.  If it didn't, we'd call
it Python or something like that.  The interesting bits are where it
doesn't look like perl5 (optional types!  operator and variable
properties!  new built-in porn!).

Did I say porn?  I meant data types.

Nat





Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-16 Thread Greg McCarroll

* Leon Brocard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
 Coo, coo, see the fabled perl6, remark how it looks just like perl5,
 wonder if anything's different and if there's a point to all this ;-)

Blasphemy ahead ..

I don't think Perl 6 can be a tremendous leap forward, not because
of RFC's along the lines of `Perl must stay Perl', but because
the next leap forward is VisualPerl which will be as much about
IDE as core language. Now lets not get hung up on the IDE bit
of that statement, its more about how people build programs
than the interface they use, the IDE merely focuses them towards
a certain methodology of building software.

And just to complete my final blasphemy, Visual Basic, may have
a shit language behind it, it may have performance problems, 
it may be very limited and may force you to implement the guts
as of any serious program you write as C/C++ DLLs but
is still the most impressive implementation of a programming 
language/dialect that I have ever seen, barring one or two
domain specific languages, such as the visualisation software
which I have forgotten the name of.


Greg `the heretic' McCarroll

-- 
Greg McCarroll  http://www.mccarroll.uklinux.net



Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-16 Thread Paul Makepeace

On Wed, May 16, 2001 at 10:06:22PM +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote:
 And just to complete my final blasphemy, Visual Basic, may have
 a shit language behind it, it may have performance problems, 
 it may be very limited and may force you to implement the guts
 as of any serious program you write as C/C++ DLLs but
 is still the most impressive implementation of a programming 
 language/dialect that I have ever seen,

You clearly haven't used Delphi. It is *streets* ahead of VB. Not
only that they provide source to their components. Not only that,
Object Pascal is possibly one of the best practical OO languages
in existence. Their component model just rocks. And their editor
is fantastic.

Delphi rules.

Paul