Sunday, February 10

Why do people MAKE these languages?

Or even write them! I'm presuming it take upwards of 60 minutes to make a programming language from scratch. Why do people waste an hour or more of their time making programming language that fall into the following categories?

  • Interpreted Programming Languages. There is no practical use for interpreted languages, (apart from online markups). These languages are produced on mass by programmers who think the theoretical being able to use their amazingly powerful programming language as a calculator is more important that being able to use their amazingly powerful programming language to make programs people can use. These languages are subsequently used by programmers who think that their program is cool enough for people to download the interpreter, install the interpreter and launch their program from the interpreter, to make programs so trivial it doesn't matter that interpreted languages are slower that treacle, which are used exclusively by Linux users who can type python -fuku shitprogram.py in their sleep.
  • Case-Sensitive Languages. While being case sensitivity is not quite enough to ruin a language, it's close. These languages are designed to be use in projects utilizing so many variables you run out of letter combinations and are forced to differentiate through capitalization, by programmers who are so fantastically talented they never capitalize incorrectly.
  • Programming languages not utilizing print keyword. People have been typing print since it actually printed. We will continue typing print. If that means not using your language... guess what?
  • Programming languages with a riddddddiculous amount of keywords. If you have a separate print command just to append a line feed, this is probably you.
  • Programming languages that compile to byte-code. The advantage to compilation is people don;t need an interpreter, it's faster and source protection. The advantage of interpretation is interpretation (some people like that). The advantages of byte-code are slowness, no-one can access your source, only people dedicated to you enough to download a compiler will use your program. Oh, wait, those aren't advantages. Well, then, I guess you suck, byte-code.
  • Programming languages without a manual. These exist! I figure, for every language there must be a manual. Nothing hardcore; one page, all of the keywords, what they do. It would take like, at most one eightieth of the time it took to make the language. But no, some dumbfuck goes and writes a language, puts it on the net and waits for it's users to write a manual for it. Which would be fine, if it were also physically possible. What do you expect us to do? Type random ass words in, compile and test? No, what we're going to do is use C. Piss off. It would also be nice if the manual didn't require a masters first doctorate in Computer Science to understand.
  • Non-portable languages. At least Linux and Windows. Windows users are the majority, and Linux users represent the portion of the community that deserve computers. (Unix variants, anyway). Both Haiku users are too used to stuff not working for them to complain anyway.

There are probably more, but I can't think of any right now. Basically, I don;t like C and her dirty sisters much. I can't use C++, because apparently, I need a makefile in order to compile the following program:

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
std::cout << "Hello World!" << std::endl;
return 0;
}

Despite having about four books on C++ at my disposal, I have not found the word "makefile" among them. I can't find makefile tutorials on the internet. It also turns out that despite having four C++ compilers installed, the file "iostream" isn't on my computer. Or the internet. What I want more than anything, right now is No More C. In order to escape C, someone has to make another programming language. Somehow, people haven't done this. I've waited and waited, but No. People waste time that could be spent replacing C making pointless crap languages like Liberty Basic (no rand function, useless), Python and Ruby. Java. Think of a use for Java. No, I couldn't either. I've seen one program in Java that did something of worth, and it was KOLMafia. I think that proves my point. Art of Illusion? If you were made in any other language, you'd be a real program!

To be fair, no language can out useless Liberty Basic. It is interpreted, Case-Sensitive, has no Randomizer, and you have to pay for the interpreter. Think about that for a second. Paying for a compiler is fair enough. Paying for an INTERPRETER? Great. Liberty Basic programs are useless, except to people stupid enough to pay for liberty basic. And then just useless.

(Okay, maybe Liberty Basic isn't useless, that was harsh. It is easily the least practical language I have ever used.)

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Quite a rant. It seems like you hate everything. What do you like?

Hmm. Well you should at least check your sources. A quick Google finds that Liberty BASIC does indeed have the classic BASIC RND() function. http://www.libertybasicuniversity.com/lb4help/Command_Reference_R-S.htm

As for whether an interpreter is less valuable than a compiler? Really, what's the difference in the end? They're both useful tools, and they both take hard work to produce.

Seriously I wish I had a big red pen so I could scribble corrections all over your post and then mark it with a great big F.

2/12/2008 5:10 pm  
Blogger Morgue said...

*shrugs* I find it very hard to take interpreted languages seriously. I'm know they have some uses. A lot of what I say is more humorous than accurate anyway.

I apologize if my post contained inaccuracies, I really couldn't find a rand function in Liberty, and I looked quite hard.

I would like a compiled language I could make any sense of, that's all. If you can suggest one, I can stop ranting.

2/12/2008 7:30 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home