some use PROLOG at work. If anybody know a serious modern replacement here, i'm listening. Yeah we could go with 50 different DSLs written in Java, but why reinvent the wheel ? That stuff works and it's powerful.
Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
121–130 of 338 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
#122I use MATLAB for 90% of my day to day work, for a combination of reasons - 1. Historically it is what has been used at my firm. We have a lot of code already written in MATLAB, interfaces to internal apis, external data providers etc. Everyone at the firm understands MATLAB code. 2. It really is very good for numerical work - both in terms of speed, and clarity of the code (much better than Python and R for clarity -…
I also dislike R. Strongly disagree with the argument that MATLAB is more clear than python, however. Have you tried numpy/scipy? Provides excellent performance and very powerful APIs. I've always found that a great deal of the MATLAB syntax does not gel with my expectations. "./" vs. "./" for instance, or using parenthesis to address array elements. I would much prefer a truely OO capable language, as well.
> "./" vs. "./"
Is this a typo? It seems like two instances of the same thing
Re: Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
#123In my professional life, C wih occasional forays into ASM (my niche is embedded DSP which itself is inside a larger embedded system). In my side projects, C, FORTH, and Lua. All at the same time, in the same build.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
#124I use Smalltalk. It's what OO languages should be, and what keeps me using it is that the language is the library and I can extend it any way I wish to suite whatever problem I need to solve and I can do it live, tinkering, in a live environment.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
#125I've been using Fortran 90/95 extensively over the last few years, for numerical simulation of quantum systems. I think there's a lot of misconceptions about Fortran (which is partly due to Fortran 77, with its punchcard format and spaghetti code). Fortran 90 is basically a different language, and is actually reasonably modern. I see it as significantly more suitable for numerical programming than C/C++. Fortran is c…
I also worked on a quantum (DFT) code in Fortran 95. I agree on your points, once you get used to it, it's basically isomorphic to C but with better numerical support. Compared to C++ it's verbose but understandable and with little magic, which is an advantage when working on a team, similar to Java. Main disadvantages I found were rubbish string and IO handling, no standard library of algorithms/data structures (lists, sort, etc.), and (in my codebase) there was still a bit too much reliance on global variables. Most of those are effectively fixed as the high-level controlling code is moved to Python and the F95 code is libraryized.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
#126I use Delphi. The RAD Studio IDE is super featured and it's really easy to create interfaces. A nice feature is that the programs produced contain all dependencies so nothing else needs to be installed when distributing.
I'm curious if you're familiar enough with other more modern languages and platforms to give an opinion on the relative efficiency of Delphi compared to some of the others? As someone who used to build lots of apps in MS Access (which is similar to Delphi but not as good), I find it takes far longer to build things with modern platforms, although you have much more capabilities.
I do a lot of Delphi during the day (medical systems), also spent a number of years with other languages - C/C++, Objective C, Java, c#, javascript, typescript, lua, perl etc and I agree whole heartedly. Delphi is still the most productive platform imho, so much so that most side projects I do with delphi. The fact it is now cross platform adds to the list of 'why I think delphi is the best'.
Unfortunately there's no one thing that I can point to that makes Delphi the best, its a lot of little things - the IDE and screen painter, the way you can use pointers, deployment is so easy with a single exe, RAD. The one language I prefer to delphi is typescript, it is Delphi with a lot of functional sugar, but since its written by the same guy probably not a surprise.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
#127Smalltalk! I got in touch with it in university and I love it. I'm convinced it is the best OO language there is, and generally one of the best general purpose languages (and environments!) ever invented. I even had the luck to be able to use it on my last job (VisualWorks), but unfortunately I no longer have that job :(
I tried Smalltalk recently, but I couldn't get into it: 1. The (basically mandatory) UI was keyboard unfriendly 2. They removed multiple inheritance from the language. That's not still Smalltalk, is it?
Um, Smalltalk doesn't have multiple inheritance, isn't supposed to.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
#128Smalltalk! I got in touch with it in university and I love it. I'm convinced it is the best OO language there is, and generally one of the best general purpose languages (and environments!) ever invented. I even had the luck to be able to use it on my last job (VisualWorks), but unfortunately I no longer have that job :(
It is the best OO language there is, it is after all the original OO language. Everything else is a poor copy.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
#129Anyone use ABAP (language for SAP)? I think you can get paid a lot of money as an ABAP programmer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABAP
you also get paid a lot of money as a truck driver in Syria, there's a reason for that
Re: Ask HN: Do you use an old or 'unfashionable' programming language?
#130We use a business-basic style language called ProvideX[1] from the mid 80s. 99% of our codebase is GOTOs, GOSUBs, and PERFORMs. It's a mess to deal with. But at the same time, the language has a database layer built in that (while slow) works well enough for our uses, it has a GUI toolkit that works cross platform, and you can run the same GUI panel via a web browser through a shim that the company created. That's th…
> That's the one thing i've never seen anywhere else
Xojo - http://www.xojo.com
Originally known as RealBasic it has the ability to output native, cross platform apps from a single codebase. Interesting history.