Comments on: Power in programming, and another research idea I’ll never have time to get into http://nattle.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/power-in-programming-and-another-research-idea-ill-never-have-time-to-get-into/ Meditations on my journey through the information professions Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:45:18 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: George V. Reilly http://nattle.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/power-in-programming-and-another-research-idea-ill-never-have-time-to-get-into/#comment-19 George V. Reilly Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:45:18 +0000 http://nattle.wordpress.com/?p=34#comment-19 Graham also has more to say about power in his most recent essay, http://www.paulgraham.com/arcchallenge.html His main point is succinctness = power. This captures most of what 'power' means to me, but here are a couple of counter-examples. A DSL (Domain-Specific Language), such as GraphViz or regular expression notation, can be very succinct and powerful in its domain, but be useless for anything else, such as manipulating a network socket. A more-general language may not have the expressiveness of a DSL, but it can solve far more problems. A low-level language, such as C or assembler, can be used to write any program -- if you work at it hard enough -- many of which cannot be written in other languages. You won't be able to move a disk head around in Lisp, but a typical Lisp program will be more succinct than its C equivalent. Graham also has more to say about power in his most recent essay, http://www.paulgraham.com/arcchallenge.html

His main point is succinctness = power. This captures most of what ‘power’ means to me, but here are a couple of counter-examples.

A DSL (Domain-Specific Language), such as GraphViz or regular expression notation, can be very succinct and powerful in its domain, but be useless for anything else, such as manipulating a network socket. A more-general language may not have the expressiveness of a DSL, but it can solve far more problems.

A low-level language, such as C or assembler, can be used to write any program — if you work at it hard enough — many of which cannot be written in other languages. You won’t be able to move a disk head around in Lisp, but a typical Lisp program will be more succinct than its C equivalent.

]]> By: Zane http://nattle.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/power-in-programming-and-another-research-idea-ill-never-have-time-to-get-into/#comment-18 Zane Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:46:38 +0000 http://nattle.wordpress.com/?p=34#comment-18 In my view one programming language is more powerful than another if it allows you to express the same ideas more succinctly without sacrificing clarity. I acknowledge that there are many ways in which that statement is ambiguous, subjective or both, but it's a complicated question. Paul Graham, a luminary in the Lisp world, wrote about the importance of succinctness in programming languages, but he didn't place as much importance on clarity: http://www.paulgraham.com/power.html Steve Yegge, another developer and essayist, wrote a bit about this too: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/12/codes-worst-enemy.html In my view one programming language is more powerful than another if it allows you to express the same ideas more succinctly without sacrificing clarity. I acknowledge that there are many ways in which that statement is ambiguous, subjective or both, but it’s a complicated question.

Paul Graham, a luminary in the Lisp world, wrote about the importance of succinctness in programming languages, but he didn’t place as much importance on clarity:
http://www.paulgraham.com/power.html

Steve Yegge, another developer and essayist, wrote a bit about this too:
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/12/codes-worst-enemy.html

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