10 programming languages, 10 projects, 12 months - The List

Wednesday, 2 January 2008, w kategoriach: Programming

Here is what I finally settled on for my little project:

Languages:

• C# (Mono)
• Common Lisp (SBCL)
• Python
• Factor
• Scala
• Erlang
• Haskell
• OCaml
• Smalltalk (Squeak)
• Prolog (SWI)

I replaced Scheme with Scala, as Ashley Moran suggested in the comments to the previous post. Also, I removed J from the list, as I was afraid about not finding enough libraries or support to finish my projects in any reasonable time. I added Prolog instead, because of it’s long tradition, and some very positive opinions by excellent programmers (Joe Armstrong in particular).

Projects:

• Ray-tracer
• Unit testing framework
• HTTP server (serving a single directory)
• Blog web application (with a web framework if available)
• Arkanoid-style game
• Generating an index from a set of text files
• Hex editor
• Basic bindings to the Allegro library
• A mini-language compiled to CSS (simplifying the handling of large style sheets)
• A GUI front-end to “cdrecord”

Even through I won’t turn any of those into a full-fledged, production-ready application, I still highly doubt if I will manage to do all this in one year, especially considering the fact that I don’t have huge amounts of free time. However, I won’t stress about this too much - if it takes more than 12 months, or if I won’t complete it for any reason, so be it. It just sounds like a lot of fun, so let’s not be too serious about this.

10 programming languages, 10 projects, 12 months

Wednesday, 2 January 2008, w kategoriach: Programming

Hello, I’m Jarek and I’m a programming languages junkie. From since I was a young nerd, I enjoyed playing with them, and to some degree I still do. As I get older and more serious about programming, through, I try not to get as subjective about them as I once was, or worse yet, attached to a particular technology too much. Sadly, I found such attitude to be rare, and good objective language evaluations hard to find, especially ones that would cover which disciplines which language is good for, except the obvious ones (like Perl for text processing). A good craftsman knows what tool to use for which tasks, this is pretty much established knowledge, even through some variation of opinions certainly exists. Yet in programming, other factors tend to play a major role in choosing the tool - large corporations support (if the project is a commercial one, or if you want to be useful in your work), personal taste, hype surrounding the language, ease of use etc.