[Info-vax] IBM Layoffs (quite a bit off topic)

[David Froble]

johnson.eric at gmail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, January 28, 2015 at 6:17:56 PM UTC-5, David Froble wrote:
> 
>> Just teach VAX Basic, what else could ever be needed?  :-)
> 
> I know you probably mean this tongue in cheek, but I'll answer anyway.

Well, yeah ....

> Perhaps DEC Basic has constructs I wasn't aware of, but I suspect it
> would be a bit tough to cover programmatic idioms that center around
> things such as closures, lambdas, call with current continuation, generic
> programming, functional programming, object oriented programming, 
> dynamic typing, meta programming, and of course garbage collection.

Brain is sizzling.  Will be well fried soon.

I'm pretty sure I don't have a clue as to what most of those terms 
represent.

Closures?

Lambdas?  Is this a fraternity?  :-)

Call with current continuation?  Is this sort of like async stuff, 
queueing ASTs and such?  Spawning additional processes or sub-processes?

Generic programming?  Is this just simple coding?

Functional programming?  Producing code to actually do something?

And the rest ....

Not sure why I'd need garbage collecting.  Maybe clearing large dynamic 
strings when done with them.

As for OO programming, my perception is that in the past some people 
found themselves doing things in multiple places, and learned to write 
reusable code, written once, to perform such tasks.  Then some people 
decided it needed a name, and started preaching.  But all it was was 
just some intelligent programming.  Of course, we all know I don't get 
out much.

But, if any of those terms above were decently described, I'm betting 
that I could do them ....

> To be fair, no language covers all of those topics completely. Many things
> are entwined, and there are of course tradeoffs between what a language
> chooses to emphasize and what it chooses to hide. But I'm just not sure
> I see a language like DEC Basic offering a unique voice on those topics.
> 
> EJ

Not unique.  Probably most decent languages could do whatever needs 
doing.  I'm just used to Basic, and can better understand how to solve 
problems using that tool.  It's just a tool, and there are others.