Reinventing the wheel

I just came across this article, which encouraged me to write something. How misinformed some people are.

Programmers are restricted because they are heavily dependent on programming infrastructure which they cannot easily change, namely the languages and environments that they use. If I want some extension to a language, I must wait for the language designer to update it. If I want some extra power from my IDE, I must wait for the IDE vendor to add the new features.

*cough*Lisp, Lisp Machines…*cough*

Ideally, I would be able to use different languages for each specialized part of the program, all working together coherently. And the environment would fully support these languages with refactoring, code completion, navigation, and all the other productivity tools that are available for mainstream languages.

To achieve this independence, I need the freedom to create, reuse, and modify languages and environments.

You mean it's not enough to be able to create your own abstractions beyond those offered by the language, and use already-created abstractions? Why didn't you say so? I mean, I always thought a uniform syntax and full macros was enough… Oh! You were referring to Java.

His Page 2 describes exactly how programming occurs in Lisp: a language for solving the problem is developed, bottom-up, during the problem-solving process, making the solution elegant and direct.

Then he gets on to this…

When a compiler compiles source code, it parses the text into a tree-like graph structure called an abstract syntax tree. Programmers do essentially the same operation mentally when they read source code. We still have to think about the tree-like structure of the program. Thats why we have brackets and braces and parentheses. Its also why we need to format and indent code and follow coding conventions, so that it is easier to read the source.

and I give up.

I will agree that there is room for improvement in editors — but I disagree strongly that what he's doing is new.

The OSNews discussion is great.

Posted at 2004-11-23 11:25:45 by Richard • Link to Reinventing the wh…
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God I love Gizmodo

Believe me, nothing fries a keyboard like an errant tumbler of Wild Turkey. Stuff eats through plastic like Kirstie Alley attacking a bucket of wings.

Posted at 2004-11-23 10:53:46 by Richard • Link to God I love Gizmodo
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