An opinionated history of programming languages • Hacker News Board

Re: An opinionated history of programming languages

#11

Post by bhaak » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:05 PM UTC

What interesting opinions.

Rust not being a candidate for designing a future language?

But C++ being a candidate for designing a future language?

Go having remarkably poor design?

Ruby dying, but Python and Perl not?

I would really like to have a rationale for those decisions. It would be interesting to see how you can come to this conclusions.

Re: An opinionated history of programming languages

#12

Post by tpmx » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

thelazydogsback wrote: post #8

Seems like some tree-roots are missing -- Algol??! PL/(I/M)? B(CPL)? Snobol? APL? Simula? Link between Smalltalk and C++?

Seems like most of the interesting history is missing, perhaps because it happened before the author was born.

Re: An opinionated history of programming languages

#13

Post by teddyh » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

In a recent talk, Robert Martin summarizes the history of programming languages for about 35 minutes, starting here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya1xDCCMh7g#t=2m47s

Re: An opinionated history of programming languages

#14

Post by benibela » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

There is a severe lack of Pascal

Re: An opinionated history of programming languages

#15

Post by Rochus » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:14 PM UTC

thelazydogsback wrote: post #8

Seems like some tree-roots are missing -- Algol??! PL/(I/M)? B(CPL)? Snobol? APL? Simula? Link between Smalltalk and C++?

Why should there be a link between C++ and Smalltalk?

Re: An opinionated history of programming languages

#16

Post by segfaultbuserr » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

smitty1e wrote: post #7

register wrote: post #5

Ruby is dying and Perl is not?? I guess this is "really" opinionated...

For that matter, PHP is conspicuously absent, for all I'm no fan.

If PHP is included, it should be colored red ("Unlikely to influence anything in the future, due to remarkably poor design") as well... If the author already classifies Go, JavaScript, or even time-tested FORTRAN and Java into this category, it's all but fair to include PHP. On the other hand, unlike the popular beliefs, the author doesn't consider Perl to be the case here? Anyway, interesting opinion.

Re: An opinionated history of programming languages

#17

Post by jtolmar » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

Thematically related: A brief, incomplete, and mostly wrong history of programming languages (2009)

http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-m...

Re: An opinionated history of programming languages

#18

Post by dnautics » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

Rochus wrote: post #15

thelazydogsback wrote: post #8

Seems like some tree-roots are missing -- Algol??! PL/(I/M)? B(CPL)? Snobol? APL? Simula? Link between Smalltalk and C++?

Why should there be a link between C++ and Smalltalk?

Besides the fact that they have object orientation as a guiding paradigm? (Different though their faithfulness and implementation may be)

Re: An opinionated history of programming languages

#19

Post by tankenmate » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:21 PM UTC

Rochus wrote: post #15

thelazydogsback wrote: post #8

Seems like some tree-roots are missing -- Algol??! PL/(I/M)? B(CPL)? Snobol? APL? Simula? Link between Smalltalk and C++?

Why should there be a link between C++ and Smalltalk?

I think a lot of people get it mixed up with Objective-C (which is a derivative of sorts of Smalltalk).

And C++ derives much from Simula which comes from Algol. And C derives much from Algol. And link between C and C++ is kinda obvious!

Re: An opinionated history of programming languages

#20

Post by jcelerier » Sat, Oct 03, 2020, 9:21 PM UTC

Rochus wrote: post #15

thelazydogsback wrote: post #8

Seems like some tree-roots are missing -- Algol??! PL/(I/M)? B(CPL)? Snobol? APL? Simula? Link between Smalltalk and C++?

Why should there be a link between C++ and Smalltalk?

From its creator's own words:

https://www.stroustrup.com/bs_faq.html#from-Smalltalk

> C++ got its Object-Oriented concepts from Smalltalk?

> No. C++ got the key notions of classes, derived classes, virtual functions (in other words, the notions of encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism) from Simula just like Smalltalk did. In terms of family relationships, C++ and Smalltalk are siblings.