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From: Greg Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.ORG>
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Subject: Re: TCL
In-Reply-To: <199706190446.AAA06768@ethanol.gnu.ai.mit.edu> from Joel Ray Holveck at "Jun 19, 97 00:46:19 am"
To: joelh@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 15:46:14 +0800 (HKT)
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Joel Ray Holveck writes:
>
>> I won't disagree with any of this.  I just disagree with the concept
>> of having to use different languages for different purposes.  (dons
>> asbestos underwear) As far as I am concerned, there are three
>> languages: (Bourne) shell, awk, and C.  Sure, it takes more effort to
>> write some things in C than it would in perl or tcl, but you don't get
>> boxed in so easily.
>
> I personally find that just as learning foreign languages helps me
> write better, so does learning other computer languages help me
> program better.  Lisp, for instance, changed my perspective on
> hacking in a big way.

OK, OK, I admit it, I used to hack a lot of LISP, and it did more to
change my attitudes to programming than anything else I can think of.
And maybe I was being a little too categorical in my statement above:
yes, I do use other languages, in particular Emacs LISP, but not as
often.

> I also find that when I'm writing C code in Perl, I'm not using Perl
> effectively.  Instead it's most effective to think in Perl terms
> when writing Perl, and in C terms when writing C.

Sure.  That's one of my gripes.  I don't think that the learning
effective use of the group (Perl,TCL,<insert your favourite here>) is
worth the trouble.  I was unhappy enough to discover that I couldn't
do everything in LISP.

Greg