Programming language failings [was Re: strangest systems I've sent email from]

[Ian S. King]

On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 11:22 AM, Mouse <mouse at rodents-montreal.org> wrote:

> > My gripe with C is essentially the same as my grumbles with APL--it's
> > far too easy to write obscure code and not document it.
>
> "There is not now, nor will there ever be, a language in which it's the
> least bit difficult to write bad code."  Not quite true, of course;
> there are languages in which it's remarkably difficult to write _any_
> code.  But it _is_ true that there is not, nor (I believe) will there
> ever be, any language in which it's substantially more difficult to
> write bad code than good code.  (Of course, some languages make
> _certain kinds_ of bad code more difficult....)
>
> > Why it appeals to this particular foible of human nature has always
> > been a mystery to me.
>
> I doubt it's C that appeals particularly.  I've done my share of
> writing obscure code and not documenting it (I like to think I've
> learnt better, at least somewhat, by now), and C is relevant only in
> that it happens to be the language I most commonly work in.  I find the
> same tendency showing up in other languages, anything from sh to DSLs.
>
> I have an end-cut saw that I've told my Spousal Unit she should not use.
It's not a bad or defective tool - in fact, it's a very useful and powerful
tool.  But IMHO she lacks the 'situational awareness' to safely deal with
an unprotected blade going back and forth several thousand times a minute.

C is a lot like that saw - it doesn't have a lot of guards on it, and you
can do stupid things.  But you can do very powerful things that are
difficult or impossible in, say, Python, which is also a very good and
useful tool.

Don't blame the tools - blame an educational system that doesn't teach
software engineering practice, but just teaches tools.  "Hey, hold my beer
and watch this!"  -- Ian

-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu>
Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical
Narrative Through a Design Lens

Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org>
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org>

University of Washington

There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."