PySIG report for 26 August 2010

[Bill Sconce]

Seven people braved the hazards of multi-car pileups on Route 293
to attend last night's PySIG meeting, held (as usual) at the
Amoskeag Business Incubator.

Our topics, "Why Python", with lively discussion of which language
should be the first one taught to programming students (hint: its
name doesn't begin with J), some applications which may *not* be
suited to Python (think multi-threading; think Global Interpreter
Lock). Bruce Labitt showed us code and demonstrated a slick use
of a generator function: creation with simulation of kinematics
of a synthesized set of moving targets. All done, including an
animated color display, in Python code which fit in a single editor
window.  (His simulation showed six lanes of freeway traffic, with
vehicles moving at different speeds, weaving from lane to lane,
etc. Ironic, considering last night's real-world traffic.)

Thanks once again to our hosts at the Amoskeag Business Incubator
for their generous hospitality.

References for the "Why Python" discussion attached.

-Bill

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Sent from my virusproofed Linux PC


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In Praise of Scripting: Real Programming Pragmatism
Loui, R.P.;  Washington Univ. in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO  
15 July 2008       [IEEE Xplore - subscription required]
 
    Abstract

    The academic programming language community continues to
    reject the change in programming practices brought about
    by scripting. We need a programming language pragmatics
    to go past the analysis of syntax and semantics in the
    same way that linguistics studies perlocution and illocution.
    Pragmatic questions are not the easiest for mathematically
    inclined computer scientists to address. [...] It's the
    importance of just these kinds of questions that makes
    programmers choose scripting languages. The author recommends
    that scripting, not Java, be taught first, asserting that
    students should learn to love their own possibilities before
    they learn to loathe other people's restrictions.
    
    http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=4563874


In Praise of Scripting: Real Programming Pragmatism
Ronald P. Loui
Associate Professor of CSE
Washington University in St. Louis
[Draft under submission for the above IEEE article]

    TO THE EDITORS:  Please read at least the first four lines to see
        why this article belongs in IEEE COMPUTER.  See the Business Week
        article linked at the end for additional motivation on the topic
        and its timing [...]
        
    To the credit of this journal, it had the courage to publish the 
    signal paper on scripting, John Ousterhout's "Scripting: Higher 
    Level Programming for the 21st Century" in 1998.  Today, that
    document rolls forward with an ever-growing list of positive
    citations.  More importantly, every major observation in that paper
    seems now to be entrenched in software practice today; every
    benefit claimed for scripting appears to be genuine (flexibility
    of typelessness, rapid turnaround of interpretation, higher level
    semantics, development speed, appropriateness for gluing components
    and internet programming, ease of learning and increase in amount
    of casual programming).

    Interestingly, IEEE COMPUTER also just printed one of the most
    canonical attacks on scripting, by one Diomidis Spinellis, 2005,
    "Java Makes Scripting Languages Irrelevant?"  Part of what makes
    this attack interesting is that the author seems unconvinced of
    his own title; the paper concludes with more text devoted to 
    praising scripting languages than it expends in its declaration
    of Java's progress toward improved usability.  It is unclear what
    is a better recommendation for scripting:  the durability of
    Ousterhout's text or the indecisiveness of this recent critic's.
        [...]
    
    http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~loui/praiseieee.html
    
    
Scripting: Higher Level Programming for the 21st Century
John K. Ousterhout 
IEEE Computer magazine, March 1998
    
    Abstract
    
    Scripting languages such as Perl and Tcl represent a very different
    style of programming than system programming languages such as C or
    JavaTM. Scripting languages are designed for "gluing" applications;
    they use typeless approaches to achieve a higher level of 
    programming and more rapid application development than system 
    programming languages. Increases in computer speed and changes in
    the application mix are making scripting languages more and more
    important for applications of the future.

    http://home.pacbell.net/ouster/scripting.html


Java's Cover
Paul Graham
April 2001

    This essay developed out of conversations I've had with several
    other programmers about why Java smelled suspicious. It's not a
    critique of Java! It is a case study of hacker's radar.  [...]
    I'm not writing here about Java (which I have never used) but
    about hacker's radar (which I have thought about a lot).
    
    http://www.paulgraham.com/javacover.html