Ir al contenido principal

Entry #2: The Semicolon Wars

“The Semicolon Wars” is an article written by Brian Hayes in 2006 and published in the American Scientist, a magazine of Sigma Xi, (The Scientific Research Society). In the article, Brian Hayes talks about the history of the programming languages and how some programming languages are favorite or successful against other programming languages.

The article tells us that there are about between 2,500 and 8,500 programming languages, according by Bill Kinnersley and Diarmuid Piggott. By the moment I'm writing this entry, a new programming language comes up with upgrades or new features.

Each programming language have different syntax, semantics and focus on solving different problems. Each programming language has its advantages, disadvantages and limitations. These 2 premises led me to a conclusion: Each programmer has a favorite programming language, but, it depends according to the year and the trends of that time.

Learning a new programming language is easier if you already know other programming languages. The logic and algorithms for a problem will stay the same, moreover, the variables and syntax can also be maintained the same and could be written the same, but, that depends if the programming languages are related in someway.

Brian Hayes mentions that programming languages like FORTRAN or Lisp have survived the passing of time due to their power and their understandable code/syntax. However, as the article says the idea of scripting began with batch-command languages, because they were used to bind together other programming languages and extension languages, that are developed to be embedded inside programs; so scripting languages have grown up into general-purpose programming languages.

The article finishes saying that each person can rank the programming languages as they wish. A language placed in the top doesn't always mean it is the best, because we probably know or suit us better that language. New programming languages will keep coming up, and we, as programmers, have to adapt to new technologies, but, that doesn't care as we will have that one programming language that we will prefer above the others.

Article: Hayes, B. (2006). The Semicolon Wars. Recovered from http://34.212.143.74/s201913/tc2006/semicolon_wars.pdf

Comentarios

Publicar un comentario

Entradas populares de este blog

Entry #9: Language as the Ultimate Weapon

"Language as the “Ultimate Weapon” in Nineteen Eighty-Four" is an essay written by Jem Berkes in 2000. In the article, Jem Berkes discusses the inspiration behind the Newspeak language used by George Orwell inside his novel 1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four) and how it reflects in real-world situations we face day to day and how the language is powerful enough to express meaning, intention and ability.  Inside the novel 1984, there is a language called Newspeak which is a simplification of the English language, or as the novel refers it as Oldspeak. Newspeak vocabulary eliminates words that are not necessary. The new vocabulary helped the government to control people and affect memories from person's, in order to forget most of them or provoke and affect the way a person could express or think. However, in this particular entry I won't talk about the essay written by Jem Berkes, I will answer a question asked by my professor which is something related to the essay...
1 comentario
Leer más

Entry #8: The Secret History of Women in Coding

"The Secret History of Women in Coding” is an article written by Clive Thompson and published in The New York Times Magazine in February, 2019. In the article, the writer talks about women that have contributed to the advancement of Computer Science. In this article, the story of Mary Allen Wilkes is told. When she was young, she had no idea that she wanted to be a programmer as she preferred to be an attorney. However her teachers told her to give it a try, so she went to MIT where she was hired in a programmer job. This event has shown me how welcoming a company is to anyone who is looking for a place in it. Mary Allen Wilkes operated in a completely different environment from ours, where they had to write the programs on paper and then transcribe the instructions into holes on a card. In addition to the complexity of the programs, managing limited memory was another challenge. Every command on every line of code had to be totally relevant. Even though she was not...
1 comentario
Leer más

Entry #1: Presentation

Hi! My name is Adrián Méndez López, and this is the first entry of my blog for the Programming Languages course. I expect to learn Clojure and Programming Paradigms like: Procedural Programming, Object Oriented Programming, Functional Programming, Logical Programming and Concurrent Programming. Hobbies and Personal Interests: Videogames, Investigations about actual topics or technology, running, going to the cinema, etc... Books / Comics: "It", "Mein Kampf", "DC Flashpoint", "DC The Button"...I like comics or graphic novels. Music: Imagine Dragons, AC/DC, Avicii...I like Rock, Pop, Electronic music Movies: Toy Story, MCU movies...I like action, animated and horror movies. TV programs: The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory.
Publicar un comentario
Leer más