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Ted Leung on the air: Open Source, Java, Python, and ...
Ted Leung on the air: Open Source, Java, Python, and ...
Fri, 14 Nov 2003
It's not abouot Mac vs Longhorn or Linux vs Longhorn
Yesterday's post on Longhorn got a fair number of reactions. Most of the folks who left comments were indignant Macintosh users. I agree that today Mac OS X is probably a superior operating system to Windows XP. That's one of the reasons that I asked for a Mac OS X machine as my official OSAF box. I wasn't talking about today. I was talking about tomorrow.
In my opinion, the future of application building, client or server side is on a platform where safe programming languages like Java, C#, Smalltalk, Lisp, or Python are the standard method of doing business. None of Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux satisfies this criteria. So if you think I've become a Longhorn prosylte, think again. I'm merely stating something that I've stated over and over again in this blog. I want someone to give me a highly productive platform for application development. If you look at the stated plans of the three platforms, Longhorn is the one going in this direction. Apple is talking about Objective C and C++, where you can still chew your arm off by allocating wrong. Gnome and KDE are doing the C/C++ dance, except for Miguel, who thinks what I think -- that's why he's doing Mono.
The problem with almost all of the commenters is that they are looking at what is instead of what could be. Think of the vapor Longhorn as an example. Really, the only reason to say Longhorn is because so few people would know what I was talking about if I said Lisp Machine, or Xerox Dorado. Now Longhorn's no Dorado or Lispm, but its moving in that general direction, which is more than you can say for anybody else.
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4 Comments |
The Lisp Machine may be dead, but the Smalltalk Machine still lives.
Posted by Ian Bicking at Sat Nov 15 00:34:31 2003
Posted by Ian Bicking at Sat Nov 15 00:34:31 2003
While Objective-C/Cocoa isn't perfect, it's a LONG way safer and more produtive than C++. And you can write Cocoa programs in Python, Java, Ruby, AppleScript as well as Objective-C.
Check out one of the recent books on Cocoa... and check the web for new Panther-only features of Cocoa.
http://x180.net/Blog/Software/MacOSX/SanguishControllerTalk.html
Posted by ckray at Sat Nov 15 09:19:58 2003
Check out one of the recent books on Cocoa... and check the web for new Panther-only features of Cocoa.
http://x180.net/Blog/Software/MacOSX/SanguishControllerTalk.html
Posted by ckray at Sat Nov 15 09:19:58 2003
Some languages always chose safety over speed:
safe programming languages
"The first principle was security: The principle that every syntactically incorrect program should be rejected by the compiler and that every syntactically correct program should give a result or an error message that was predictable and comprehensible in terms of the source language program itself. Thus no core dumps should ever be necessary. It was logically impossible for any source language program to cause the computer to run wild, either at compile time or at run time.
...
I note with fear and horror that even in 1980, language designers and users have not learned this lesson. In any respectable branch of engineering, failure to observe such elementary precautions would have long been against the law."
Tony Hoare on the implementation of Algol 60.
http://www.braithwaite-lee.com/opinions/p75-hoare.pdf
Posted by Isaac at Sat Nov 15 11:38:11 2003
safe programming languages
"The first principle was security: The principle that every syntactically incorrect program should be rejected by the compiler and that every syntactically correct program should give a result or an error message that was predictable and comprehensible in terms of the source language program itself. Thus no core dumps should ever be necessary. It was logically impossible for any source language program to cause the computer to run wild, either at compile time or at run time.
...
I note with fear and horror that even in 1980, language designers and users have not learned this lesson. In any respectable branch of engineering, failure to observe such elementary precautions would have long been against the law."
Tony Hoare on the implementation of Algol 60.
http://www.braithwaite-lee.com/opinions/p75-hoare.pdf
Posted by Isaac at Sat Nov 15 11:38:11 2003
Now Longhorn's no Dorado or Lispm, but its moving in that general direction, which is more than you can say for anybody else.
I am not convinced Longhorn is significantly further toward this ideal than the other OSes. What Microsoft does have is a very large developer base all being shepherded in one direction.
That's not necessarily a bad thing for those developers, nor for those who would offer an alternative. I think the playing field is still wide open, and depends on the funding finding the better ideas out there for alternatives, or just value added, to Longhorn.
Posted by Patrick Logan at Sat Nov 15 12:28:09 2003
I am not convinced Longhorn is significantly further toward this ideal than the other OSes. What Microsoft does have is a very large developer base all being shepherded in one direction.
That's not necessarily a bad thing for those developers, nor for those who would offer an alternative. I think the playing field is still wide open, and depends on the funding finding the better ideas out there for alternatives, or just value added, to Longhorn.
Posted by Patrick Logan at Sat Nov 15 12:28:09 2003
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