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If programming languages were Harry Potter characters

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Re: If programming languages were Harry Potter characters

#22

Post by Rooster61 »

COBOL

If ever there was a language that comes close to matching the more notorious aspects of C, COBOL is the most likely culprit. Coming about in the same era as the venerable FORTRAN, the two languages together ran on mainframes everywhere in the early days to mung through endless business data, speeding up calculations previously done by hand, all in the name of "the greater good".

However, while their early goals were the same, FORTRAN opted for a bit more structured, concise approach, using strongly typed vars and adopting a few of the newer ideas along the way. COBOL, however, remained reliant upon horribly verbose incantations, and refused to cease use of unforgivable spells such as "goto".

FORTRAN went on to be a venerable, yet eccentric language regarded to this day as fastest in some of the more arcane calculations after so many years past its prime. COBOL, however, has for its crimes been largely ridiculed and its practice considered one of the darkest of magics. It has been relegated to the proverbial jail tower, its practitioners shunned. The famous wizard Djikstra once stated "The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense."

COBOL is Grindelwald, a crippled old relic rotting away in long forgotten mainframes.

Re: If programming languages were Harry Potter characters

#24

Post by samatman »

drostie wrote: post #10
ununun wrote: post #3

What about Lisps? Also, it would be interesting to read about comparisons between programming languages and naturals ones. What's the most elegant natural language in the world that could be said to be the Scheme of natural languages?

I was surprised that Common Lisp was not Voldemort. You need something powerful, strange, obsessed with a sort of purity even though it's not so pure itself, and whose name no one dares speak. I guess the C/C++ Voldemort/Snape thing was cool though.

For me, Common Lisp will always be Howl's Moving Castle.

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/11/ejacs-javascript-int...

Re: If programming languages were Harry Potter characters

#26

Post by ICWiener »

ununun wrote: post #3

What about Lisps? Also, it would be interesting to read about comparisons between programming languages and naturals ones. What's the most elegant natural language in the world that could be said to be the Scheme of natural languages?

Common Lisp: maybe an Animagus, like Sirius Black. Or maybe Alastor Maugrey (Mad Eye), who is quite powerful but is not necessarly attractive.

Re: If programming languages were Harry Potter characters

#27

Post by [deleted] »

tux3 wrote: post #8

I'm surprised that people consider C a dead language. C is very much one of the most used and needed language in the world, especially if the Internet of Things hype keeps on getting stronger. And of course all the current billions of lines of C didn't just disappear to be replaced by Python ( as much as I like Python). Your OS and core programs are still getting new versions from times to times, even if you don't di…

[deleted]

Re: If programming languages were Harry Potter characters

#30

Post by ChuckMcM »

ICWiener wrote: post #26
ununun wrote: post #3

What about Lisps? Also, it would be interesting to read about comparisons between programming languages and naturals ones. What's the most elegant natural language in the world that could be said to be the Scheme of natural languages?

Common Lisp: maybe an Animagus, like Sirius Black. Or maybe Alastor Maugrey (Mad Eye), who is quite powerful but is not necessarly attractive.

I'd definitely make Lisp Mad-Eye Moody, terse, and complex, but quite powerful.
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