From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 26 11:20:35 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 04C6316A4CE for ; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:20:35 -0700 (PDT) Received: from papagena.rockefeller.edu (papagena.rockefeller.edu [129.85.41.71]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A290143D49 for ; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:20:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rsidd@papagena.rockefeller.edu) Received: from papagena.rockefeller.edu (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) i3QIKRQi029224; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 14:20:27 -0400 Received: (from rsidd@localhost) by papagena.rockefeller.edu (8.12.8/8.12.8/Submit) id i3QIKRO8029222; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 14:20:27 -0400 Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 14:20:26 -0400 From: Rahul Siddharthan To: Chris Pressey Message-ID: <20040426182026.GA29196@online.fr> Mail-Followup-To: Chris Pressey , freebsd-chat@freebsd.org References: <20040425215837.3f4708fe.cpressey@catseye.mine.nu> <20040426094335.GA7578@online.fr> <20040426102844.11faaf90.cpressey@catseye.mine.nu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20040426102844.11faaf90.cpressey@catseye.mine.nu> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i X-Operating-System: Linux 2.4.20-20.9smp i686 cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Beginning C++ in FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 18:20:35 -0000 Chris Pressey said on Apr 26, 2004 at 10:28:44: > Rahul Siddharthan wrote: > > Chris Pressey wrote: > > > > A single Greek word for which there isn't an equivalent word in > > > > English-- and I mean exact equivalent, including all the possible > > > > meanings and nuances that this word can express in the Greek > > > > language-- should be enough as an example, right? > > > > > > Unfortunately, no, it's not enough. > > > > > > A single Greek word for which there isn't an equivalent English > > > word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, essay, book, or library would be > > > enough though. > > > > Which has very little relevance to programming languages. > > I disagree; I think the parallel to optimization in different languages > is quite strong. The question was whether you can do something in one language that you can't in another. If one interprets that your way (wanting an example of a word in Greek that can't be expressed by an entire library in English), the answer is clearly no. If one talks about conciseness and optimisation, obviously that's a different question. > > [on functional languages] > > So now I'm wondering: why aren't these languages more popular? > > Well, how often are they taught in schools? I first heard of ML from a computer science student in the UK. Apparently these things were standard parts of their education. In fact, ocaml is developed at INRIA in France, and the original ML was developed at Edinburgh university. And lisp was popular until the 1980s, and has its base even today, though most people only encounter it in emacs (which is not "common lisp" and doesn't do a lot of the neat things a full-blown lisp does). The impression I get is not that they're not taught in schools, but that they're viewed as too "academic" and not "real-world" enough. I guess I can't judge since I'm academic too... Rahul