Re: Joy of this, Joy of that

On 11/19/24 12:09 PM, root wrote:

I want to complement these joy posts by my feelings
about junk languages. My programming experience
includes a wide variety from machine language, assembly
language, Fortran, and C going back to the 60's.

   HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY !!!  :-)
   These "Joy" threads seem to have REVIVED these
   otherwise kinda dismal, under-posted, groups.
   Remember when computer stuff was super-INTERESTING,
   a PASSION maybe ? Well, the same stuff is STILL there,
   it's just the crowd became kinda cynical.
   FORTRAN, COBOL, ASM, BASIC, PASCAL, 'C' ... you
   name it - there are a million ways to make it
   all GOOD. SO many super-neato variants in How
   To Do It.
   OK ... never found any joy in ADA .... but that's
   just me.

I call Perl, Python, and Javascript junk languages:
because programs written in these are unstable. Some
modification in these can cause a perfectly functional
program to stop working because of some change that
was not backward compatible.

   Ummmm ... I'd tend to disagree, esp with Python.
   The main thing with Python was the v2 -> v3
   transition. Even then it's usually not much
   problem to translate a v2 to v3 app. They
   PROMISE that p4 will almost entirely stick to
   the p3 methods, just kinda pepped-up. It HAS
   become an "all purpose" lang - kinda the "New
   BASIC".
   NEVER liked JS or Perl ... but that's just me.
   Real-world, they seem to do their thing OK.
   Almost always proto a new idea in Python now ...
   and, if good, translate it into 'C' or even
   Pascal. My old fave was/is Pascal - something
   'poetic' about it.

I ran into this problem way back in the 70's when I
was running Fortran programs on CDC machines. One
day my Fortran programs would no longer compile because
CDC had updated their compiler. I had no recourse
other than tracking down every "error" and programming
around that. Do that with a program that ran to
20 boxes of cards.

   Yep, been there ......
   Langs/compilers have become kinda MORE "standard"
   since those days. Sometimes still have to tweak
   the defines a little, but LESS horrible.

Although Perl supposedly had an automatic method
for updating my Perl programs, it didn't work
for me and I just abandoned all the stuff that
I had written up to that time.

   Perl smells like a camel's ass ... just no
   reason for it.

I am now running into these same problems with
javascript programs using jsdom. Junk.

   As said ... JS is kind of an ever-mutating
   mess. IMHO, stay away from it as much as
   possible. I suspect the ever-mutating aspect
   is INTENTIONAL ... a 'make work' thing .....
   Best to stick to 'C'. K&R can still tell you
   almost everything you need  :-)
   Hmmmmmmmm ... how many now have EVER programmed
   in BASIC ? Should do a survey .....