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Saturday, April 12, 2008

Perl is here to stay

It's ugly, it's dated, and only its mother could love it, but Perl isn't going away. Actually, I have a soft spot for the language; it's the fastest and easiest way to do a lot of small jobs on the command line, and the library support is great.

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posted by Pete Bevin at 9:26 AM 0 Comments




Java 6 update 10

The upcoming Java 6 update 10 isn't just a point release - it adds a lot of new features:
  • More modular JRE downloads: if you don't need the entire JRE feature set in your app, you can break it down to just the pieces you need.
  • A new Look&Feel module called Nimbus. Unlike Metal, it looks nice.
  • Much, much better startup performance, which has been my longest standing complaint about the platform.
More analysis at Ajaxian.

Finally, a release to get excited about!

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posted by Pete Bevin at 9:18 AM 0 Comments




Tuesday, April 1, 2008

If there are epigrams, there must be meta-epigrams

In 1982, Alan Perlis distilled what he had learned from a lifetime of programming into 130 pithy quotes. TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO. And most of them are still relevant.

Some of the best:
  • Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colon.
  • It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.
  • If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
  • If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.
  • Everyone can be taught to sculpt: Michelangelo would have had to be taught how not to. So it is with the great programmers.
  • There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
  • In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
  • Making something variable is easy. Controlling duration of constancy is the trick.
  • If there are epigrams, there must be meta-epigrams.

posted by Pete Bevin at 1:43 PM 0 Comments