SE News

Éric Lévénez has compiled a computer languages timelime, listing the history of 50 programming languages in a chart.

Éric Lévénez

http://www.levenez.com/lang/

Thanks to many of the StackOverflow.com users for pointing me to the official data dump, available here, I was able to complete my experiment.

I measured, using the number of questions asked containing a specific tag, the activity of various programming languages throughout the week. My hypothesis is: Newer dynamic languages like Ruby and Python will see a rise in questions asked on the weekend while more corporate languages like C# and Java will see a dropoff in activity on the weekend.

Dan Lorenc

http://danlorenc.blogspot.com/2009/08/stackoverflow-experiment-results.html

Do you think it’s a coincidence that 80% of the best Java talent have a moderate to considerable understanding of either Python, Smalltalk, Scala, Lisp, to a lesser extent Erlang, and most recently Clojure? If you answered ‘No coincidence’, perhaps you are in that top tier of talent. If you answered ‘What a coincidence!’, please consider reading on. If you answered ‘What are Python/Scala/etc.?’, definitely read on.

Dave Fecak

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-06-2009/061909-better-java-programmer.html

1801 - Joseph Marie Jacquard uses punch cards to instruct a loom to weave “hello, world” into a tapestry. Redditers of the time are not impressed due to the lack of tail call recursion, concurrency, or proper capitalization.

1842 - Ada Lovelace writes the first program. She is hampered in her efforts by the minor inconvenience that she doesn’t have any actual computers to run her code. Enterprise architects will later relearn her techniques in order to program in UML.

James Iry

http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html

Despite the fact that FP languages have been around for just about forever in terms of the history of electronic computing - John Mc-Carthy invented Lisp in the late 1950s, for example - they’ve never shared the popularity or usage levels of their imperative counterparts. For years, the majority of industry-oriented developers considered functional languages to be inefficient and suitable only for academic exercises, and the fact that functional language syntax and idioms differed so widely from what practicing programmers were accustomed to did nothing to help these languages gain popularity.

Fortunately, however, FP languages appear to be gaining in popularity for a variety of reasons, most of them centered on different facets of the perpetual themes of performance and efficiency.

Steve Vinoski
http://www2.computer.org/portal/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=2c7ec47f-a29c-4873-b721-88cec5e5646d&groupId=53319

This is an exciting time to be a Java programmer. The pace of innovation for the Java language is slowing down, in part due to concerns that the language is growing too big and in part due to economic difficulties at Sun, which means there are fewer developers assigned to Java. However, the real crown jewel of the Java ecosystem, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), has become an attractive platform for new languages. These languages give us exciting new opportunities for growth, while preserving our prior investment in code and deployment infrastructure.

This post emphasizes practical issues of evaluating and picking new JVM languages for an established Java-based enterprise.

The Interwebs are full of technical comparisons between Java and the different languages, e.g., why language X fixes Java’s perceived issue Y. I won’t rehash those arguments here, but I will describe some language features, as needed.

Dean Wampler

http://blog.objectmentor.com/articles/2009/01/15/adopting-new-jvm-languages-in-the-enterprise

JavaScript is the most widely used dynamic language in the world and is becoming increasingly important as an application programming language. While many hard core developers are still in denial, Web 2.0 application developers from small and large companies are developing increasingly complex applications that run close to the user.

Dave Thomas

http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2008_11/column3/index.html

Originally a research language from Microsoft Research, F# has long been a “secret weapon” in the arsenal of .NET programmers for doing statistically and mathematically heavy coding. More recently, however, a growing number of developers have begun to see the inherent advantages implicit in writing functional code, particularly in the areas of concurrency. The buzz has begun to approach interesting levels following on the heels of an announcement last year from the head of the Microsoft Developer Division, S. “Soma” Somasegar, that F# would be “productized” and fully supported by Microsoft as a whole, suddenly removing the stigma and licensing restrictions that surround research projects.

Ted Neward

http://www.devx.com/codemag/Article/39465

Functional programming with F# is much more than writing good code. It is about enjoying writing code quickly and effectively. This series of articles addresses functional programming, the main concepts and differences compared to other paradigms, and how F# helps you get up to speed and produce results. This article quickly lays the groundwork and then guides you on translating and/or interfacing with your existing code.

Adam Granicz

http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/38755

Many large OO systems have such complex dependencies, especially in C++, that build scripts are like mythical writings on cave walls, which none dare change lest the build be broken forever. The Java Build story has better language and tool support, however, the massive dependencies induced by Java frameworks and configuration scripts are quickly challenging the C++ world.

Dave Thomas

http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2008_07/column3/index.html

Real-time computing is often associated with high speed, but this is only one part of the picture. At its core, real-time computing is about predictability — the knowledge that the system will always perform within the required time frame. The deadlines involved need not be very short — though they sometimes are — and the consequences of missing a deadline may not be dire — though they sometimes are. The key to whether an application is a real-time one has to do with whether its requirements include temporal constraints.

Brian Goetz,
Robert Eckstein

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Programming/rt_pt1/

Every programming language has its strengths…and its weaknesses. We identify five tasks for which perl is ideally suited, and four that… well, really, shouldn’t you choose something else?

We all know that when faced with a job to do, we usually tend to reach for the most familiar tool in our belt. And while perl is certainly a versatile tool, it isn’t the right tool for every job. Like any language, perl has its strengths and weaknesses. With that in mind, here’s some recommended uses and abuses of the elder statesman of scripting.

James Turner

http://www.cio.com/article/175450

We are pleased to announce the release of a new Python book: Object-Oriented Programming in Python. This book is based on materials developed after switching our curriculum to the use of Python for an object-oriented CS1 course. Since the primary market is an introductory course, we do not
assume any previous programming experience for our readers. This should make it a very good match for those who wish to self-study.

The book differs greatly from existing introductory Python books as it warmly embraces the object-oriented nature of Python from the onset. It is also extremely comprehensive with solid fundamentals as well as several “advanced” topics that can be covered as desired.

Michael Goldwasser

http://www.prenhall.com/goldwasser

Kevin Kelleher suggested an interesting way to compare programming languages: to describe each in terms of the problem it fixes. The surprising thing is how many, and how well, languages can be described this way.

Paul Graham

http://www.paulgraham.com/fix.html

Wicket, a lightweight, component-oriented web application framework in plain Java and XHTML, stresses separation of concerns, testability, and good object-oriented design practices. Check out Wicket’s approach to common implementation scenarios.

The web application frameworks available today offer a wealth of development styles. Well-known web development technologies such as JavaServer Faces, ASP.NET, and the Google Web Toolkit use event-driven, component-oriented designs that resemble traditional GUI programming. This approach makes sense as web applications become more like desktop applications in sophistication and functionality all the time. However, many of these frameworks can be unwieldy, requiring heavy tool support and having steep learning curves. Also, the mingling of code and markup often challenges testability, refactoring, and separation of concerns. A Java web application framework called Wicket takes a lightweight approach to the component-oriented model to overcome these and other challenges.

Daniel Carleton

http://www.devx.com/Java/Article/35620