TXR – A Programming Language for Convenient Data Munging
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Re: TXR – A Programming Language for Convenient Data Munging
#2I ashamedly had never heard of this before. Could anyone add any colour RE:
1. Parsimony.
2. Performance vs awk and friends.
3. Multi threading.
4. Ideal use cases.
Re: TXR – A Programming Language for Convenient Data Munging
#3> The PDF rendition of the reference manual, which takes the form of a large Unix man page, is over 600 pages long, with no index or table of contents. There are many ways to solve a given data processing problem with TXR.
"Good luck, you're on your own!"
Re: TXR – A Programming Language for Convenient Data Munging
#4> The PDF rendition of the reference manual, which takes the form of a large Unix man page, is over 600 pages long, with no index or table of contents. There are many ways to solve a given data processing problem with TXR. "Good luck, you're on your own!"
This. I have never seen a programming language brag about being inaccessible and having bad documentation.
Re: TXR – A Programming Language for Convenient Data Munging
#5> The PDF rendition of the reference manual, which takes the form of a large Unix man page, is over 600 pages long, with no index or table of contents. There are many ways to solve a given data processing problem with TXR. "Good luck, you're on your own!"
This. I have never seen a programming language brag about being inaccessible and having bad documentation.
I read it as honesty and not bragging. Few people set out to create a inaccessible language with bad documentation, but given enough time and users, most languages become one. I'd prefer language maintainers and users have enough self-awareness to not believe it is still the elegant and simple language of 20 years ago.
Edit: 10 years ago in this case.
Re: TXR – A Programming Language for Convenient Data Munging
#6Very interesting. I'm wondering why they didn't implement the Lisp version on top of CL with macros
Re: TXR – A Programming Language for Convenient Data Munging
#7> The PDF rendition of the reference manual, which takes the form of a large Unix man page, is over 600 pages long, with no index or table of contents. There are many ways to solve a given data processing problem with TXR. "Good luck, you're on your own!"
Well the HTML version has contents. 600 pages of documentation and with the information density I see in a quick skim would not imply a “you are on your own” mentality to me.
Re: TXR – A Programming Language for Convenient Data Munging
#8"TXR Lisp programs are shorter and clearer than those written in some mainstream languages "du jour" like Python, Ruby, Clojure, Javascript or Racket. If you find that this isn't the case, the TXR project wants to hear from you; give a shout to the mailing list. If a program is significantly clearer and shorter in another language, that is considered a bug in TXR."
That section made me chuckle. Admirable if true.
Re: TXR – A Programming Language for Convenient Data Munging
#9It would be interesting to have a DSL for data munging, but I am afraid TXR is not it. My requirements would be that the language should be functional and total.
Most transformations that we do on data do not require Turing completeness or recursion. I think it would be useful to write these down in a language with semantics that is easy to analyze.
Re: TXR – A Programming Language for Convenient Data Munging
#10Well, this looks great, but I'm not about to start digesting the self-admitted 600-page tome just to see if it's worth learning for the tasks I encounter - surely there's a "tutorial" somewhere?