Wednesday, September 13, 2006

new to blogging!

This is only my second blog. (the other one is at opera.com, same name).
So, got a lot to learn about the blogosphere, how to talk to other bloggers,
how to get their attention, how to create buzz.

I'm a software developer, I've created a new data crunching programming
language.

Got a question folks( is there anybody out there listening? ). If you think
you can enlighten me on this issue, please leave a comment on my blog.

All-purpose programming languages ( C, Perl, etc. ) get a ton of comment
(even flamewars) on the internet. Specialized programming languages - specific
to a certain usage, such as row/column data manipulation, do not get a lot
of talk on the internet, but they can be very important for getting the job done.
(By far the most famous specialized programming language is SQL, it does just
one thing, and does it well - like Kentucky Fried Chicken, but there are many
others).

Any ideas or thoughts , folks?


Robert (i.e. datahelper)

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Greetings!

I came across your blog because you posted a comment on mine:

http://hilbertastronaut.blogspot.com/2006/10/perl-hackers-say-three-chief-virtues-of.html

A lot of my work a few years back involved data crunching -- both off-line (for analysis) and on-line (filtering). I did most of the off-line stuff in Perl and the on-line stuff in C++ (because that was the language of choice in our work group). Both involved interacting with databases (SQL) and data files in various plain-text formats.

I think it's important to remember that a common case of using specialized languages is when embedded in a program written in a more general-purpose language. Lua from C, SQL from Perl, Matlab from Lisp ( Clisp has a module that lets you communicate with a Matlab process), whatever -- the combination lets you exploit the speciality of the special-purpose language, while having access to the full power of the general-purpose language. Imagine if you could only use SQL from an SQL interpreter window -- how many fewer people would use SQL!

You've written a useful tool -- just be sure to be welcoming to potential users, however they may approach your product -- whether it be as a standalone or as an embedded language.

7:23 AM  
Blogger Robert said...

Sounds like good advice. You're right about that, many times one programming language will be used to manipulate another, and manage how the other language is being used.

Two obvious cases are all-purpose languages, such as C++ or Java, being used to manage either
1) SQL
or
2) XML

Of course, is XML really a programming language? In some ways yes, but it is a programming language that is typically controlled by a computer program written in another programming language. It's a programming language that is being managed, as opposed to doing the management.

Now, that is dense!

Vilno currently does not have hook-in APIs that C++ (or Java or Perl etc) programmers can call upon, but that is an excellent point.

Thanks for the comment and stay in touch.

1:38 PM  

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