According to that page, their new switch expression is very egelent.
Eclipse launches new language to cut down Java boilerplate - Extend
211–220 of 229 posts
Re: Eclipse launches new language to cut down Java boilerplate - Extend
#212The reason I never used Java is that every time I tried to learn it I would get type errors. So in order for my programs to work I needed to constantly define what type things were. The other big problem I had was whenever I tried to follow examples they didn't work because there is an arcane system of importing libraries or knowing some long function name. The language doesn't seem to have any universal functions. You have to import everything. If this changes any of that then I might use it. I really like the idea of programs being able to run on any operating system. Oh one more thing is the eclipse IDE seems to have so many different set ups and ways to download it how can you know which is the right one?
Re: Eclipse launches new language to cut down Java boilerplate - Extend
#213Meh. I don't understand what is so bad about Java. Yes, there's boilerplate, which can addressed with the right development tools. New languages are a good thing. But a language whose sole purpose is to remove boilerplate from Java, does not really get us anywhere.
New languages are not a good thing.
Re: Eclipse launches new language to cut down Java boilerplate - Extend
#214(5 years from today) Extend is too low level ... I think we need another meta language on top of it.
what's wrong with that?
Exactly. It would be nice if someday someone realized a language shouldn't be constantly trying to teach the programmer something about computers. The best language would do as much of the work as possible by having a default for everything and by assuming as much as can be assumed. The point is not to reaffirm over and over what a variable is and how it is stored. We should learn that once in a text book and then get some work done. If you are designing programming languages for a living then maybe you should be concerned with that. This is called division of labor.
Re: Eclipse launches new language to cut down Java boilerplate - Extend
#215The reason I never used Java is that every time I tried to learn it I would get type errors. So in order for my programs to work I needed to constantly define what type things were. The other big problem I had was whenever I tried to follow examples they didn't work because there is an arcane system of importing libraries or knowing some long function name. The language doesn't seem to have any universal functions. Y…
1. Java is a statically typed language so yes, the types need to be defined and known at compile time. Some people like static typing, others not so much. If you fall into the second group, there's a whole lot of dinamically typed languages you can try out.
2. Java is also object-oriented. This means that, in java, all the functions are methods of objects. There are no 'universal' functions which are not attached to objects in any way. Again, some people think that the object-oriented approach is a good thing which more accurately describes the world we live in, and some don't [1]. It's up to you to decide whether you think OO is a good or a bad thing.
3. Regarding Eclipse.. Go to http://eclipse.org/downloads/, choose the installation which suits you best (if you're going to do some standard java development, then obviously you'll choose the first installation, 'Eclipse IDE for Java developers'). If you later wish to develop for other languages (or write enterprise java apps), no problem, Eclipse is very extensible so you can always include the appropriate plugin in your current Eclipse installation.
[1] http://www.google.com/search?q=object-oriented+programming+s...
Re: Eclipse launches new language to cut down Java boilerplate - Extend
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
* There are memorable keyboard shortcuts for everything. * It can generate comparatively more code for you. * It's faster, though I fear it's working on losing this advantage. * The autocomplete is smarter, and has a few different options. I started using IntelliJ a few years ago, when I came onto a Java project after several years using vim and Python, and I'm convinced it made the transition a lot less painful. The…
Eclipse crashes on me or freezes up frequently despite using a quad-core brand-new laptop with 8gb memory. The UI frequently becomes unresponsive. Anything to do with IO such as opening files, having maven pull in a bunch of files, etc is horribly slow and usually causes the app to freeze. As far as I know it doesn't offer variable suggestion, in IntelliJ you just type the first letter or 2 and it immediately suggest…
Eclipse does offer variable suggestion/completion using Ctrl+Space. Works for class names, variables, method names etc. Camel Case search is another nice feature. I personally use SpringSource STS (especially for the Groovy support). And btw, IDEA freezes up as much as Eclipse does. It's more of a problem with desktop Java applications, than with a specific IDE.
Re: Eclipse launches new language to cut down Java boilerplate - Extend
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you absolutely sure that Clojure can fit all problem domains? Clojure might be great for MapReduce type of programming. Does it fit a typical Accounting, CRM, Claim management (those kind of business-y app) software projects?
Actually, I really am sure Clojure will fit in all of those problem domains. Indeed, I'm pretty sure that if you experienced a well-written Clojure accounting app, you'd wonder why people bothered with Java.
The parentheses are only one hurdle that Clojure makes you jump over, though. The other is Functional Programming.
I read an article here or on Proggit a few weeks ago by a (semi-professional?) game programmer who reviewed his own attempts at writing a real-time arcade-type game (PacMan?) in a functional language. Yes, he got the thing working and it even performed decently but he was irritated that if he really stuck with the paradigm of not having alterable state, some small changes to his app's functionality would entail changes in all kinds of places in the source.
Happily, Clojure gives you explicitly alterable state and a bucketload of mechanisms for working with those. But still, after months of practice I still struggle to get my head wrapped around FP. Typical business software programmers (as I picture them) might have similar troubles.
Re: Eclipse launches new language to cut down Java boilerplate - Extend
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the nice things about compiling to Java source is that it allows you use it with GWT. The only downside that I can see is that there might be constructs that you can't express in Java that you would want in a new language (note that you're fine with ones that you can technically express in Java but are just ugly, like closures). There are probably not very many of them, though.
Well, scala can be used with gwt: https://github.com/scalagwt It was documented on scala, page, but now you have to use the google cache to see this: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wqqu7uQ...
Exciting! Thanks for the link.
Re: Eclipse launches new language to cut down Java boilerplate - Extend
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eclipse crashes on me or freezes up frequently despite using a quad-core brand-new laptop with 8gb memory. The UI frequently becomes unresponsive. Anything to do with IO such as opening files, having maven pull in a bunch of files, etc is horribly slow and usually causes the app to freeze. As far as I know it doesn't offer variable suggestion, in IntelliJ you just type the first letter or 2 and it immediately suggest…
Eclipse does offer variable suggestion/completion using Ctrl+Space. Works for class names, variables, method names etc. Camel Case search is another nice feature. I personally use SpringSource STS (especially for the Groovy support). And btw, IDEA freezes up as much as Eclipse does. It's more of a problem with desktop Java applications, than with a specific IDE.
I've never had IDEA freeze on me. Eclipse may offer those (I wasn't aware of it) but you would have to tinker around to configure it, I really prefer simplicity to a mountain of configuration to get it working the way I want. Eclipse is more of a platform, its great for some things since companies have built plugins for all sorts of things (like the Drools visual editor, for example), its fine for this sort of thing but as a regular code editor I find I prefer to use something that is more simplified and limited, not something that is essentially trying to be a platform.
Re: Eclipse launches new language to cut down Java boilerplate - Extend
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not the same thing. You obviously use partial application only if the function takes params. And I just can't see why you'd like to pass a reference on a parameter-less function.
Closures don't need to take parameters to be useful, but you're missing the point. There is a simple, unambiguous rule -- () calls, no-() references. In order to... what? save two keystrokes? -- you have added a strange corner case, and then tacked on a new bit of punctuation for partial application. Though now it seems you're adding the rule that functions without parameters can't be referenced. This takes a simple…
There's no ambiguity when you're using closures.
Concerning partial function application, you need a special syntax anyway (unless you consider all functions to be curried by default).
You don't do that to save keystrokes, you omit parenthesis because "All services offered by a module should be available through a uniform notation, which does not betray whether they are implemented through storage or through computation."
I used scala for a while, I admit there's a whole bunch of features that can get you confused. This takes 30s to spot.