Re: [tlug] Functional Programming Group Meeting

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On 2008-04-18 00:03 -0700 (Fri), SL Baur wrote:

> What do you think of Icon?

I had a look at it the other day, actually, having been led there by a
few moments of SNOBOL nostalgia. I like it for what it is, but I have
to say that since about the mid 80s Algol-style syntax has seemed a bit
"heavy" to me, and that put me off it a bit. It's kind of like the thing
where you do C for a few years and go back and look at PL/1 again, and
it's just not quite as cool as it used to be.

The one syntax (or lack therof :-)) that has always and probably will
always work for me is LISP. It's amazing to look back and realize that,
as it were, "everything I needed to know I learned in the 50s." (Ok, I'm
romanticising; it wasn't until Scheme came out that we actually merged
the namespaces for variables and functions.)

But honestly, once I got over my quibbles with ML-style syntax, Haskell
became the language of choice, and I'm in love with it. Having a type
system like that is a wonderful thing, and though to some battling with
the type system rather than with the algorithms might seem much of a
muchness, for me, even at this early stage, it feels as if I spend a lot
more time dealing with the problem I'm trying to solve, and a lot less
time dealing with the problems of programming.

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson       <cjs@example.com>        +81 90 7737 2974   
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