Prolog - it's still as good as new, far as I'm concerned.
Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
341–350 of 502 posts
Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
#342I still get paid to program in Pick Basic ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick_operating_system ) which seems kind of unreal in 2017.
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Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
#343Too old for any one language to have lasted my entire career. But:
C for (embedded(embedded))* audio DSP engine, with hardware specific intrinsics and occasional drops into inline ASM when those fail. When every cycle counts and Hard Real Time contracts must be met, to me it is anathema for any invisible compiler-generated code to exist - such breaks the required determinism. So no C++. Would write in pure ASM in the old days. Still want to - most times the C preamble/postamble is not needed in event handler functions. But TPTB dictate otherwise. Small talent pool and they want Jr progs to take it over.
FORTH as the most useful interactive hardware/low level software debugging tool for behavioral debugging (vs post mortem breakpoint debugging, which loses the behavioral context). Used to use hardware logic analysers for this but system complexity out-grew them. I should note I am not using a commercial FORTH, rather a freeware core greatly extended and modified by me for this purpose. Used it in several projects with different CPUs and architectures over the years. Can feed it C headers for readable dumps too (translator written in PERL). Key point: does this while the target continues executing. Caveat: do NOT use unless you know and understand every line of code in the engine and its implications for the target system. Given that, it's the sharpest double-edged handle-less debugging tool I've ever found.
* the DSP engine is embedded inside a larger embedded system. All inside the same chip. Makes for interesting times when one cannot touch it directly in main OS land.
Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
#344MUMPS. Despite its strong resemblance to compiler IR and lack of a type system, it is the standard DB in Health IT in America.
First started programming in MIIS (relative to MUMPS) in late 1981. And have continued to use MUMPS/M/MSM/DSM/Cache for most of the intervening years with 4 years off for Fortran and a year or two for COBOL.
Most of the work has been with medical information systems, although the first job entailed a library information system. One of the few languages I knew of which could make a PC-AT into a multi-user machine. It also enabled a clinic to move from a PDP to a 386 and to no longer have to relegate financial batch jobs to off hours.
Will probably also continue to use AWK this year.
Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
#345C for text processing, shell scripts for web scraping (wget, lynx, sed, ...). The elegant design of Unix tools still amaze me. I may do a little Classic ASP too.
Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can it integrate with Unix command-line filters and tools roughly as well as shell can? Interested.
That depends upon your definition of "integrate". It can read/write stdin/stdout (just as any scripting language can) so it can be used to write additional filters/tools that don't exist in the standard set that can then be used from shell as with any other tool. But if you mean using it to create a pipeline out of existing command line tools, then yes, but with a bit more boilerplate than plain shell needs. The buil…
>That depends upon your definition of "integrate".
I meant roughly all that can be done with shell, except maybe somewhat differently (due to Tcl's different syntax or features). The usual things: call existing command-line tools, write scripts in which you use its own syntax/features as well as call / pipe between / orchestrate command line tools, redirect std I/O, etc. - the things that make the shell powerful.
Thanks for the reply. Seems like it is close to equivalent from what you say.
Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
#347Perl 5, of course! It's an awesome language and both the language and the ecosystem is getting better and better all the time
Seconded. We have a Perl codebase going back about 20 years (Command-line interface to our CMDB, integration with lots of external systems like DNS, generates config for mail servers, DHCP server, routers, ...), and while there are some nasty spots, overall it's pleasant to work with.
Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
#348Depends on your definition of "old" -- I'm using Bash, PHP, HTML, and JavaScript at work, which are all over 21 years old, but they don't really feel that old (even PHP feels new and shiny thanks to the lovely Symfony framework).
got some love for Symfony for sure
Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
#349Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still teach SQL, via SQLite, as a first language to students, even though in practice I do 90% of my data analysis through the command line or Pandas. But SQL is very direct and clear as a language, and the overhead of SQLite is...well, light. Making an index is just one more line of code that for many datasets, you run once and never touch again. What do you find simpler in terms of data querying and management?
The functionality of SQL is great but I really wish it would like more look like other programming languages. I wonder how SQL would look like if someone would design it now. It also should integrate easier with other languages. Using SQL from C# or C++ is a real pain with tons of casts and string manipulation. Better debugging would also be nice.
> The functionality of SQL is great but I really wish it would like more look like other programming languages.
I think it looks a lot like COBOL :)
Which isn't surprising given it was designed by IBM in the 1970s.
Re: Ask HN: What “old” programming languages will you still be using in 2017?
#350Prolog - it's still as good as new, far as I'm concerned.
I have a bunch of Prolog books and I definitely love it. One of my new year's resolutions is to use Prolog for anything I can get away with at least through January.
Usually I get about 20% in and then give up on it. I'm going to really force myself to get through the other 80% this year.