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Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

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Re: Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

#61

Post by WorldMaker »

vbezhenar wrote: post #27
przemelek wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they simply weren't able to sustain it. In the West, while the military industry initially pushed computer development, private companies quickly adapted those technologies for the consumer market. Over time, the Western consumer market became vastly larger than the military one. In the USSR, this cross-pollination wasn't possible because anything that even touched the military was immediately classified as a sta…

I think it's a bit different. USSR just wasn't rich enough to afford experimentation and innovation. Resources (including human brain power) were quite limited. So they had to copy proven solutions. Simple as that. It's easy to judge them in the retrospective. But they had to make decisions, using the information the had at the moment, weighing risks as they saw them at that moment.

I think the "anything computing was seen as state secrets thing" is also possibly easiest to see in any documentaries and books on the history of Tetris (including the 2023 movie on Apple TV+). It's weird to say that Tetris was one of the most innovative software programs in USSR history and that the USSR almost crushed it before it had a chance to soar in the minds and dreams of millions of players, but that's basically what it was.

Even accepting the counter-narrative that the story of Tetris was "evil" capitalists taking advantage of the USSR to "steal" Tetris from the people of the USSR and the output of their socialist labor, the USSR was never in the position to offer Tetris to every worker in the country as a gift for their hard work because it was a state secret and computing wasn't something everyone had access to.

It is interesting to ponder if the USSR had made different decisions on the usefulness of general computing for the masses rather than the military what would have happened to Tetris as one interesting microcosm of the USSR's relationship to computing.

Re: Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

#62

Post by lstodd »

Insimwytim wrote: post #58
przemelek wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't a lack of raw brainpower or wealth; it was a structural and ideological failure of resource allocation. The USSR and the Iron Curtain bloc had a massive population and world-class scientific talent. The problem was that the Soviet system viewed independent thought and individuality as a threat, actively sabotaging its own geniuses: Persecution of Top Minds: Sergei Korolev, the literal architect of the Sovie…

> Sergei Korolev, the literal architect of the Soviet space program, was sent to the Gulag, where he lost his teeth to scurvy and survived a broken jaw That's just a scary tale, that was created long after he died. > Trofim Lysenko’s fraudulent agricultural theories were deemed "more communist." Not exactly. His "fraudulent" theories delivered real value, and saved millions of people from starving. But he didn't belo…

Oh my, we have an actual Stalinist here.

Re: Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

#63

Post by lstodd »

grishka wrote: post #30

By the way, there's one Cyrillic programming language still in wide use today. It's part of 1С (1S), an ERP system that's absolutely everywhere in Russia. The language itself is quite similar to Visual Basic. It's awkward to write with a regular Russian keyboard layout, but I was told that there exist special layouts just for it.

I think I still have a book on C-in-cyrillic somewhere. Like, just all keywords just translated to Russian.

Re: Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

#64

Post by kasabali »

danslo wrote: post #23

I could be wrong, but I believe the name is in reference to the Divine Rapier, an item in Dota 2, which is very popular among Russian speakers.

Nah it's a razor blade :P

https://www.amazon.com/100-Rapira-Platinum-Razor-Blades/dp/B...

Re: Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

#65

Post by grishka »

lstodd wrote: post #63
grishka wrote: post #30

By the way, there's one Cyrillic programming language still in wide use today. It's part of 1С (1S), an ERP system that's absolutely everywhere in Russia. The language itself is quite similar to Visual Basic. It's awkward to write with a regular Russian keyboard layout, but I was told that there exist special layouts just for it.

I think I still have a book on C-in-cyrillic somewhere. Like, just all keywords just translated to Russian.

I've seen a meme where someone did that with a bunch of #define's

Re: Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

#66

Post by lstodd »

grishka wrote: post #65
lstodd wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I still have a book on C-in-cyrillic somewhere. Like, just all keywords just translated to Russian.

I've seen a meme where someone did that with a bunch of #define's

Meme's a meme. That is a hardcover, printed in at least 10s of thousands.

Re: Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

#67

Post by justsomehnguy »

vbezhenar wrote: post #27
przemelek wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they simply weren't able to sustain it. In the West, while the military industry initially pushed computer development, private companies quickly adapted those technologies for the consumer market. Over time, the Western consumer market became vastly larger than the military one. In the USSR, this cross-pollination wasn't possible because anything that even touched the military was immediately classified as a sta…

I think it's a bit different. USSR just wasn't rich enough to afford experimentation and innovation. Resources (including human brain power) were quite limited. So they had to copy proven solutions. Simple as that. It's easy to judge them in the retrospective. But they had to make decisions, using the information the had at the moment, weighing risks as they saw them at that moment.

> USSR just wasn't rich enough to afford experimentation and innovation. Resources (including human brain power) were quite limited. So they had to copy proven solutions. Simple as that.

"me good other stupid" in a nutshell.

Re: Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

#68

Post by gus_massa »

orbital-decay wrote: post #20
varjag wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The acronyms are because it was originally russified by substituting character codes in Pascal binary. Thus VAR became ИМЯ, END became КНЦ and so on. Same reason JOB hilariously became ЗАД in the liberated OS/360. Everyone's happy, head of development celebrates his 3rd degree Lenin's premium.

Is it really Pascal though? There's a lot of academic/educational languages with the similar syntax, and I think РАПИРА had additional data structures. (I've read a book on it and tinkered with it as a kid, but it was in the early 90's and I barely remember any of it)

It uses :: instead of BEGIN, so it's not 100% Pascal.

Re: Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

#69

Post by grishka »

lstodd wrote: post #66
grishka wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen a meme where someone did that with a bunch of #define's

Meme's a meme. That is a hardcover, printed in at least 10s of thousands.

So is it really a book about something like

    #включить 
    
    цел главная() {
        печататьф("Привет, мир!\н");
        вернуть 0;
    }

Re: Rapira (Рапира) – Soviet programming language interpreter

#70

Post by lstodd »

grishka wrote: post #69
lstodd wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meme's a meme. That is a hardcover, printed in at least 10s of thousands.

So is it really a book about something like #включить цел главная() { печататьф("Привет, мир!\н"); вернуть 0; }

Yup.
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