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Skip: A programming language to skip the things you have already computed

skiplang.com

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Re: Skip: A programming language to skip the things you have already computed

#91

Post by alpaca128 »

viktorcode wrote: post #58
mcluck wrote: post #10

Looks interesting but here's what I don't understand. So many programming languages do not show example code on the homepage. That's like if Mazda didn't show cars on their homepage. Sure, you won't really know what it's like to drive it without getting your hands dirty but at least let me see the trim.

Just click "learn more" button and you'll see step by step examples of the language features. A quick take on the front page can't possibly explain much about a language, maybe just a sample of syntax? I don't know why it would've been useful.

I can only speak for myself, but this kind of abstract listing of features is absolutely meaningless to me. Why would I want to use it instead of others, how do the unique features make a difference at solving a frequent problem? After reading the page I know Skip does something with caching, but I still have no clue what difference it actually makes in a program.

In my opinion a programming language landing page without code example is like a game's Steam store page without screenshots - it's cool to know it's a "fast-paced racing game" but that could apply to everything between Tux Racer and Gran Turismo.

TypeScript's website shows right at the top in a few lines how it makes an easy mistake in JS impossible. Zig's site has a nice example that gives you an idea of some added features, how it differs from C but still feels similar. Rust's website had an editable and runnable code snippet showing iterators and pattern matching (although for some reason they later replaced it with the phrase "blazingly fast" in the redesign).

Re: Skip: A programming language to skip the things you have already computed

#92

Post by andrenotgiant »

interpenetrate wrote: post #84
FridgeSeal wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out the work Materialize is doing as well - similar vein.

I did just that recently. They certainly seem to offer the most complete solution. Definitely worth keeping an eye on. I had to pass because of its prohibitive license (for now) and the head-scratching bugs I ran into with the direct Postgres source. I also had some concerns about the complexity Materialize would add to architecture of the sort of small apps I typically build. I know this is unappreciative of the com…

Thanks for trying Materialize, (I work there!) What bugs did you run into with the Postgres Source? If you put them in a reply here or an email to andy@materialize.com we would be very appreciative of your feedback.

Re: Skip: A programming language to skip the things you have already computed

#93

Post by noduerme »

Whoa so - I had to kinda dig to get to the Lvalues section of the docs, but ya really bury the lede there! I love the concept of x.!o = 3 and !x.o = {copy of x, with o=whatever}. I didn't read far enough to understand whether this makes deep clones with sub-objects. (I'm guessing...not?) Still, that itself is very innovative.

Re: Skip: A programming language to skip the things you have already computed

#94

Post by moron4hire »

rowls66 wrote: post #30
rco8786 wrote: post #18

A whole homepage about a programming language, and nowhere on the page does it show the programming language. :-/

Why is seeing the syntax of a programming language so interesting? I think that syntax is one of the least interesting aspects of a programming language.

Well, one particular thing we'd see if there were a meaningful example on the home page is that Skip doesn't use a keyword to declare new symbols, opting instead declaration being conflated with first-assignment.

http://skiplang.com/docs/functions.html#variables

Misspelled variable assignments will silently succeed, rather than error because the symbol doesn't exist. I think that's a massive mistake and it speaks to a relative lack of large project development on behalf of the Skip designers.

So, I guess, in a backwards way, it's better for them to hide their syntax away from the home page, because I wouldn't have spent as much time on the site if I had seen that right away. "Time on site" metric improved, but to no meaningful result.

Also, in the year 2022, the site does not have a TLS certificate.

Re: Skip: A programming language to skip the things you have already computed

#95

Post by 0xTJ »

kazinator wrote: post #28
mcluck wrote: post #10

Looks interesting but here's what I don't understand. So many programming languages do not show example code on the homepage. That's like if Mazda didn't show cars on their homepage. Sure, you won't really know what it's like to drive it without getting your hands dirty but at least let me see the trim.

In the spirit of testing: Mazda doesn't show cars on their home page. Here is mazda.com: Forbidden You don't have permission to access / on this server. You have to add www. to mazda.com before you can see any damn cars. And it's just one car I see; some fat SUV that looks like it's about to give birth to a pair of sporty twins.

I don't get your point. Plenty of sites have `www` (though most will forward to it from the non-`www` version. A company's homepage isn't defined as their first-level subdomain. On top of that, many companies have different homepages. Some are for their products, some are for their company.

Re: Skip: A programming language to skip the things you have already computed

#96

Post by moron4hire »

spicybright wrote: post #35
rowls66 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is seeing the syntax of a programming language so interesting? I think that syntax is one of the least interesting aspects of a programming language.

I can't find any code that highlights the main feature of the language. Only example programs like hello world, arithmetic, etc. which are fairly useless.

This seems to be their main hook that differentiates the language: http://skiplang.com/docs/lvalues.html. Otherwise, it looks basically like TypeScript with some of the keywords renamed.
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