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Re: Dylan Newbie just wanting to say hi.
Bruce Hoult wrote:
> However as a Mac and (sometimes) Un*x programmer I know that Dylan isn't
> quite there yet.
Hey! ;-)
> We desperately need a workable C FFI for d2c finished!
I agree, and I'm going to take a look shortly once I finish porting MOOF to
Dylan, but it may be out of my league. Any help gratefully received....
> I'd love to see more people working on this stuff and more activity, but
> at the same time I'm leery of evangalising *too* hard and having hordes of
> people turn up here with high hopes only tobe disappointed at the outset.
If SQUEAK, REBOL and SELF can be hyped up as languages, I don't see why Dylan
can't be. FD is ready, and GD is ready enough. We should sell the excitement of
being there as it comes together, not the fear of it not quite being fully
together yet. Dylan may or may not change the world of programming, but it can
improve the experience and practice of programming for anyone who programs in it.
Dylan's readability, expressiveness, and compactness, its potential for
optimization and extensibility, its standard libraries (and DUIM), and its
ability to play well with other languages are not rivalled by any other language
I've used (c/c++/lisp/java/basic(s)). It's fast becoming my reference language
("...how would I do this in Dylan.?"), and my preferred language for personal
programming tasks. If I could get paid to program in Dylan, I would, but whilst
I'm programming in C++ my knowledge and continuing use of a better programming
language is invaluable.
> There's a new high-profile OS coming up soon, with lots of legacy apps but
> few native ones -- MacOS X. Perhaps there's a real chance to get Dylan
> established as a premier programming language there.
On the Gwydion side there's work underway at the moment on a d2c version of the
Mac toolbox interface, and on a d2c CW plugin. For OS-X, I'm looking at autoconf,
and the Boehm GC needs tweaking. I agree that this is an excellent opportunity
for Dylan.
- Rob.
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