Xref: utzoo comp.object:1468 comp.lang.misc:5177 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!rutgers!uwm.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!lfcs!nick From: nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Objective-C review Message-ID: <5182@castle.ed.ac.uk> Date: 16 Jul 90 15:27:11 GMT References: <1638@dinl.mmc.UUCP> <1690@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl> <5239@stpstn.UUCP> <55443@microsoft.UUCP> <5281@stpstn.UUCP> <55517@microsoft.UUCP> <5156@castle.ed.ac.uk> Reply-To: nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) Organization: Wavetables 'R' Us Lines: 29 In-reply-to: db@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Dave Berry) In article <5156@castle.ed.ac.uk>, db@lfcs (Dave Berry) writes: >In article <55517@microsoft.UUCP> jimad@microsoft.UUCP (Jim ADCOCK) writes: >>Well, perhaps you can suggest a simple language friendly to the neophtye >>programmer that can be used for large commercial projects? > >You can find some useful ideas in Standard ML. This is taught as a first >language by several colleges, and is also being used for large commercial >projects. > >The reason it works is that it's expression based, so integers, functions >and modules can all be typed straight to the system (usually an incremental >compiler). Neophytes can write simple programs without having to write >module interfaces and the like. Also, being almost purely functional, there is little need to reason about state in the various modular components. Hence, the type inference system serves as an informal verification, if you like, of the system - if it typechecks, then the chances are it'll work. This is an interesting difference from OO languages where local state is quite an important concept. > Dave Berry, LFCS, Edinburgh Uni. Nick. -- Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh. nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk !mcsun!ukc!lfcs!nick ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ Ich weiss jetzt was kein Engel weiss