Re: Smart programming languages

From: Eric Mutta (anon21h_at_yahoo.co.uk)
Date: 02/05/05 

Date: 5 Feb 2005 08:52:58 -0800

Jonathan Bartlett wrote:
> anon21h@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> > ...Or more accurately "smart compilers". I've been thinking about a
the
> > current state of the art in programming language design and where
it
> > seems to be heading. Just out of curiosity, if you heard the term
> > "smart language" or "smart compiler", what would come to mind? What
> > things do you do over and over and wish the compiler/language could
> > just figure out?
>
> Actually, this is doable today with Scheme macros. What I think
would
> be useful is instead of extending the compiler is to extend the IDE.
> Perhaps write an extension to DrScheme's IDE which could help you
write
> macros, and perhaps even do smart pattern-matching on your code to
> suggest macros.

Unfortunately, I only have a passing familiarity with functional
languages - enough to be dangerous :-). But the idea of extending the
IDE sounds interesting although now one ends up being bound to the IDE
to get the nifty features...and we are all familiar with those who want
to program in nothing but Notepad, eh? :-)

> Other smart things that an IDE would be able to do is to help you
with
> OO refactoring. [...]

I've heard some Java IDE like IntelliJ and Eclipse do things of that
sort. If you can get past the hefty downloads and run-time bloat they
may be worth a look.

> If you want to take a look at autocoding techniques, I suggest you
also
> take a look at the work done in Squeak eToys:
>
> http://www.squeakland.org/school/drive_a_car/html/Drivecar12.html

LOL, I like the car idea - its like the old turtle graphics on
steroids!

> Generalizing this to encompass more aspects of programming might be a

> good project.

Hmmm, I dunno how well it will fare beyond the basics. I find that
programming by pictures tends to be distracting and like with UML
diagrams, you get people spending more time admiring their 'art' then
focusing on the code. Thanks for the link though, I'll poke around the
site and see if there's some other stuff of interest.

> Jon
> ----
> Learn to program using Linux assembly language
> http://www.cafeshops.com/bartlettpublish.8640017

Cheers,
Eric Mutta :-)

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