Python is readable

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:29:48 -0400, Nathan Rice wrote:

[Snip a load of stuff about the laws of physics, infinity, and of course 
fractals.]

I'm just surprised you didn't manage to fit quantum mechanics and "the 
interconnectedness of all things" into it :)


> TL;DR there are a huge number of incompatible programming languages
> because people are modeling a permutation rather than the input to a
> permutation generating function.

No offence Nathan, but I think you need to come back down to earth for 
air before you black out:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000018.html

Or at least before *I* black out. Even if somebody manages to write your 
meta-language, you're going to run into the problem of who is going to be 
able to use it. The typical developer knows three, maybe four languages 
moderately well, if you include SQL and regexes as languages, and might 
have a nodding acquaintance with one or two more.

With the radical changes you're suggesting, developers would need to be 
able to deal with some arbitrary number of different DSLs, and whatever 
meta-language is used to glue them together.

There are a huge number of incompatible programming languages because 
language designers have different requirements, preferences, and styles; 
and because the state of the art of language design is very different in 
2012 than it was in 1962.


-- 
Steven