Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Monday, August 16, 2004

Reviewing Joel on Software -- Comment()
Today Apress promised to send a review copy of Joel on Software by Joel Spolsky. I look forward to getting my hands on the book.

What is the best programming language? -- Comment()
How To Pick A Programming Language: 'This was written in response to one of the inevitable "Why programming language is better, x or y?" questions that pops up with great regularity [...] I thought I'd take a stab at answering it for all time...'

There must be dozens of languages which I have tried at one point. Here is my list of favorite languages, and applications with a build-in language (in no particular order): Pascal, Fortran 90/95, Python, ANSI C, Mathematica, Maple, Matlab, Prolog, Smalltalk, ...

-- Comment()
And you thought the Olympics was about sport: "From the official Athens 2004 web site comes this list of Restricted Items and Actions:Flag poles, logos, open umbrellas in seating areas, items (T-shirts, hats, bags, etc.) with distinctive trademarks of companies that are competitive to those of the sponsors..." [Technovia]

Reading Down and out in the Magic Kingdom -- Comment()
I just read Down and out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. I like the book, but it took several days to read, so it was not a compulsive read for me. Contrast this with Lovely Bones which I read on my vacation in one sitting. In parts Down and out reads more like a book synopsis than a finished book. The characters are a bit thinly motivated, and there is not much drama and tension in the book. But the world-building is believable, and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the "Bitchun" society.

Why programmers don't like to use programs? -- Comment()
CT commented my entry on hiring a hacker vs. a professional: "[...] you have to take the IDE into account. The tool that you use to program, which is, of course, a computer program itself, is important. A program language can have multiple IDEs. This makes the problem more complicated than we give it credit. [...] Why do programmers not like to use programs?"

I agree that the development environment matters in programming. The first program I ever bought was Turbo Pascal for Mac Plus. It was a fine compiler but not very advanced in terms of the IDE. Later I swithed to Lightspeed Pascal which was much nicer. The IDE helped me to solve a difficult programming project, which I don't think I would have solved otherwise.

Yet later I became familiar with Smalltalk, where you really can't separate the IDE from the language.

You can go further than you think you can -- Comment()
Earlier I criticized the slogan "You are faster than you think", which would fit a web site titled dope-yourself.com. But later I thought about a slogan that would fit me, and my current filosophy, rather well. Here it is: "You can go further than you think you can." This applies to work, writing, family matters etc.