OT musings about psychology of Squeask mailing list members - unanswerable questions

demiourgos at smalltalk.org demiourgos at smalltalk.org
Sun Feb 20 02:26:17 UTC 2000


On Thu, 17 February 2000, Mark Guzdial wrote:

> 
> At 11:51 AM +1000 2/18/00, Mike Thomas wrote:
> >
> >Why is it that there are so many non-mainstream computer language
> >users/lovers here?
> >
> >Are you all wanderers in cyberspace, fearful of the mainstream computer
> >language imperialists?  Perfectionists looking for the ultimate computer
> >language?  Outcasts?  Snobs?
> 
> I laughed out loud at that set of questions.  At least for me: Yup, 
> probably, all of the above :-)
> 
> My favorite languages have always been NON-mainstream: Logo, 
> HyperCard, Lisp, Python, Smalltalk.  I believe that the design of the 
> language does impact my productivity and also impacts the way that I 
> think about things through the language (the Whorfian hypothesis). 
> So I do look for languages that stretch how I think about things and 
> that let me easily do interesting things.
> 
> That said, the more interesting question to me is: Why are there so 
> many people addicted to "mainstream" languages?  Why does everything 
> have to look like C?
> - Is it this deeply held belief that only C and its derivatives can 
> be compiled to efficient enough code and my programs deeply need 
> every zot of zorch in the machine?  I find lots of my students have 
> that one.
> - Is it "it doesn't really matter, and I already know C"?  Most 
> professionals I've asked this question give me this response.

[snip]

It is oversimplifying greatly, but (a) I think the
software industry is little better than the rock music
business:  The killer app or the latest programming
language are little better than Top Tens; (b) it may be
that most of programming practice is crap because 90%
of everything is crap.  "(a)" is why I have a link to
the Eagle's "New Kid in Town" off my personal page
(http://algebraist.com/newkid.htm).  "(b)" is
"borrowed" from the reported brief interview with some
famous SF author (Frank Herbert?) who, when asked by a
reporter, "Why is 90% of SF crap?" replied "My dear
sir, 90% of everything is crap."

Smalltalk is and always was Good Stuff.  Appealing
to "pop Zen" by paraphrasing Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita 
(from "The Next Karate Kid"), "Do a small thing 
perfectly, and everything is possible."


__________________________________________________
  Jan Theodore Galkowski                algebraist.com/ 
  www.whysmalltalk.com/              www.smalltalk.org/                                     
  demiourgos at smalltalk.org           marssociety.org/
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