Mail Archives: geda-user/2015/07/07/14:33:16
On Tue, Jul 07, 2015 at 01:42:22PM -0400, Dave McGuire (mcguire AT neurotica DOT com) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com] wrote:
> On 07/07/2015 12:52 PM, Stefan Salewski wrote:
> > For languages we have luckily many really fine ones now. I already told
> > you that I will mostly concentrate on Nim for the near future. It is not
> > much more difficult that Python, covers the whole range from low level
> > kernel and bare metal development up to what is generally done with
> > Python/Ruby/Java. And it is fast as C. But of course many other
> > languages like Rust, Go, Crystal would be fine for EDA development too
> > -- for me Rust seems to be more difficult.
>
> This sets off some alarm bells for me. I'm a professional developer;
> I write code every day and I like to stay on top of new research, and
> I've never even heard of most of the languages you mentioned here. I've
> heard of Go, and Python, Ruby, and Java, of course, but Nim? Crystal?
> Rust?
I'm also a professional developer and know many other professional
developers. I also know other developers who are not professional
(sorry, could not resist).
We've all heard about the languages mentioned above. Rust seems
to have a particular hype today, and I would say not without
merit. Anyone used to C and C++ should check it out.
That said, I don't think neither of those is really an option for
next-gen libgeda.
> If I've never heard of them, I'm willing to bet that many other
> potential contributors haven't either.
I'm willing to bet that you'd lose the bet.
Just because you haven't heard of them does not mean that the
rest of the world hasn't.
> Locking development into somoene's pet language that will likely
> disappear into (further) obscurity in a year or two is not the way to
> ensure the longevity of a software project.
I completely agree. Though I have to point out that it all depends
on the likelihood of "disappearing into obscurity". I predict that
not all of them will be extinct ten, or twenty years from now.
> And further (and I apologize if it sounds like I'm picking on you
> here), rabid proponents of dozens of "pet" programming languages have
> claimed them to be "as fast as C!!" for decades. I didn't believe it
> then, and I don't believe it now.
You do not need to believe anyone. Measure. Evaluate. Then draw
conclusions.
--
Ivan Stankovic, pokemon AT fly DOT srk DOT fer DOT hr
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