From: Chad Perrin <code@...>
Date: 2011-04-13T00:56:55+09:00
Subject: Re: functional paradigm taking over

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On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 09:31:34PM +0900, Mike Stephens wrote:
>
> What we've seen here is some people - but not all - have a fixed frame
> of reference about what qualifies as a language.

That "fixed frame of reference" is called a "definition" -- and
definitions are of critical importance to language.  Without such
definitions, there would be no language; we would just be making
inarticulate noises at each other, without any communication or
understanding.


>=20
> 'Domain Specific Language' is a perjorative term.

No -- it's a descriptive term.  A pejorative term would be something like
"blub language".  The term "domain specific language" describes a
narrower focus, which makes it more suitable to certain tasks than a
domain nonspecific language, and less suitable to other tasks.

You act as though "domain specific" is a synonym for "crippled", but
that's not the case at all.  It is, in some respects, more like saying
"chef" when referring to a knife.  A chef knife is not "crippled" because
it is a poor choice for spreading butter on bread, opening an envelope,
or scaling a fish; it's just really good at certain cooking tasks, and
worse for other tasks, because it is specially designed for that
particular task at the cost of having features suitable to other tasks
neglected.

The fact that people say MS Excel is not a programming language is not
some kind of insult to MS Excel or personal slight aimed at its users.
It just means that Excel's design is better suited to use as a
spreadsheet than as a programming language.  I wouldn't use Object Pascal
as a spreadsheet, either, but that doesn't mean it's useless or that
people who use it (like my father's use of its Delphi flavor) are idiots.

--=20
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]

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