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Date:	Fri, 5 Sep 2003 08:07:20 PDT7
From:	"Lynn H. Maxson" <lmaxson@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-programming@scoug.com
To:	< "scoug-programming@scoug.com" > scoug-programming@scoug.com >
Subject:	SCOUG-Programming: Free IBM VisualAge SmallTalk

Content Type: text/plain

Peter Skye writes:
"...My language portfolio wish list gets longer and longer.
Java, Prolog,SmallTalk, APL, SNOBOL . . . (I'm enticing Lynn
into a free-for-all.)"

Well, Peter, as long as you are willing to play straight man as
you are here to my punch lines we should get along just
fine. I think I reported here and at our last meeting about
the Smalltalk thing, though somehow mine all worked with
only two zip files. The second one was only necessary to
provide an i-o interface to the first one, the client version I
installed.

I went to the website of the Visual Prolog people whose OS/2
versions I had been buying for some time. They offer a free
download of their "personal" version. Unfortunately I
discovered that they had dropped OS/2 support entirely
including pulling the previous 5.2 personal and professional
versions. I expect to have more to offer on this at our next
SIG meeting.

I would, however, invite all readers to visit the Prolog
Development Center (PDC) website, www.visual-prolog.com.
There you will find a link to some on-line tutorials, including
parts 1 and 2 of Fundamental Prolog. While the exercises
assumes you have the latest (Windows only) product the
examples themselves are pure Prolog. They are simple
enough that you can read and understand them easily. If you
can't quite do the exercises in your head, then you might try
ye olde paper and pencil. If the interest is there, then maybe
we will review them at this month's SIG meeting. Prolog and
pizza sounds like a winning combination.

I'm more than willing to discuss SNOBOL as I, too, have the
OS/2 Catspaw version. We could toss in AWK, YACC, LEX and
the other 50 or so that come with the gcc package. It makes
a point about a psychological barrier separating those willing
wade in the different language waters and those who would
rather not. Among those who would rather not we might
include those for whom programming seems like rocket
science where even learning one "foreign" language is one
too many.

In truth we have a continuum ranging in extremes from those
with fervor of a Steven Levine willing to take on all
programming language comers and those like Carla Hanzlik
unwilling (and uninterested) in taking on any. In our current
programming SIG effort we seek to find ways to move the
psychological barrier closer and closer to Carla's end. In that
manner find ways to move more open source users over to
contributors.

So we have the current reality in open source of polylingual
use as well as dialects, e.g. VACPP, Watcom, GCC, within a
language. As long as it exists we need to continue to find
ways to shift the psychological barrier more towards Carla's
end. As our understanding of all languages increases through
our attempt at comparative linguistics through a process of
osmosis (and some analytical thinking) we can start to
extract out a set of "necessary and sufficient" features. This
will allow us to synthesize these into a single language.

I say that three pre-1970 third generation languages--LISP,
APL, and PL/I--contain more than exists in all the rest. In fact
I'm willing to set aside LISP and APL to make the claim for
PL/I alone. I also note that all first, second, and third
generation languages utilize the "manual" stages of the
software development process (SDP): specification, analysis,
design, construction, and testing. When you follow that with
fourth generation reducing the "manual" stages from five to
two (specification, testing) and possibly one (specification),
you have to ask why anyone is still using first, second, and
third generation languages?

Why do we persist in a labor-intensive endeavor in keeping it
at a higher instead of lower level? We have a proven means
to increased productivity. Yet we choose not to use it.

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