Programming Languages

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This is the current Lemmy equivalent of https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammingLanguages/.

The content and rules are the same here as they are over there. Taken directly from the /r/ProgrammingLanguages overview:

This community is dedicated to the theory, design and implementation of programming languages.

Be nice to each other. Flame wars and rants are not welcomed. Please also put some effort into your post.

This isn't the right place to ask questions such as "What language should I use for X", "what language should I learn", and "what's your favorite language". Such questions should be posted in /c/learn_programming or /c/programming.

This is the right place for posts like the following:

"Check out this new language I've been working on!"
"Here's a blog post on how I implemented static type checking into this compiler"
"I want to write a compiler, where do I start?"
"How does the Java compiler work? How does it handle forward declarations/imports/targeting multiple platforms/?"
"How should I test my compiler? How are other compilers and interpreters like gcc, Java, and python tested?"
"What are the pros/cons of ?"
"Compare and contrast vs. "
"Confused about the semantics of this language"
"Proceedings from PLDI / OOPSLA / ICFP / "

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armchair_progamer

Why Static Languages Suffer From Complexity (and type-safe printf implementation without macros) (hirrolot.github.io)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/programming_languages

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I think, especially in programming language communities, that there tends to be a preference towards making a static language for their compile time guarantees, and this is a pretty concrete counterargument as to why people find dynamic languages "easier to program in"

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have mixed feelings about the blog post. I don't think it is wrong per se, but I think this text conflates language features that are orthogonal too much. The initial description of the problem is good, explaining what is meant by inconsistency and feature biformity. But there's a lot of things after that I just don't agree with. Maybe there's some different core assumptions to start with we disagree on.

But in the end, different tools require different features. Programming languages are tools. There's no one-size-fits-all solution to every use case.

I do not understand "counterargument" here either. Counterargument for what? I don't think anyone suggests that choice of typesystem isn't a tradeoff.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe not here, but I tend to get the feeling that the argument for static typing goes "it may look harder than dynamic types, but it's really not that bad", where as this article shows some more concrete disadvantages of static type systems

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

There is no meaningful debate if static or dynamic systems are better. It's a tradeoff. And as such, arguments either for or against make little sense if the context about the situation they were designed for is ignored or left ambiguous.