[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Python?

[Arnstein Lindgard <a-l@xxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 14:03:41 +0100 Raimar Falke wrote:
> YES a language war!!!!

On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 02:42:02 -0800 Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
> Not to dissuade you... but are you being honest when you say you like C,
> as opposed to modern languages?  I always have a hard time wrapping my
> brain around the idea that in 2003, there are application developers who
> really feel this way.  Kernel gurus, device driver jocks, ok.  But app
> developers??

Looks like a tasty piece of bait you have there, Mr. Troll :-D

I'll give you a caveman perspective. I typed my first machine code
directly into memory with a hardware (ROM) program, and felt pretty
advanced when I started using an assembler, since it gave me the
ability to cut and paste, and thus correct mistakes. Eventually I've
learned to appreciate cut n' paste, although I still think the
programmer ideally should just write it right to begin with...

What scares me is when people start complaining about things like
pointers, and construct languages in order not to have to learn about
the fundamentals of computing. Pointers is just a small step of
abstraction of something the CPU can do.

If you were a racer driver, would you use automatic gear, or listen
to every hum of the engine and do it yourself? And they say if you
want to learn several human laguages, you should start with studying
Latin.

I think the philosophy of Python etc. make them suitable only for
limited types of specific tasks. "Focus on the task, not the tool."
I don't believe in that. Focus on the tool, learn what's really going
on inside, and then say "What can I make happen on my personal
computer with this?"

"C" is a nice syntax to write assembly in less lines. You don't loose
any control, except for the ability to write absolute-adressing
self-modifying code, which wasn't a a good idea to begin with. None
of my machine code ever survived a kernel upgrade.

If Python was an accepted standard among AI-programmers, I'd be all
for it in order to attract more Freeciv coders, but the comp.ai FAQ
says it's a newcomer.


Arnstein