From: Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
Date: 2002-08-23T03:07:08+09:00
Subject: Re: SV: A Repeat: New Language After Ruby?

Thomas S淡ndergaard <tsondergaard@speakanet.com> writes:

> As I do so often, I now feel tempted to quote the pragmatic
> programmers. From the paper "Never Build an Application"
> (http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/ppllc/papers/1998_03.html) I've
> selected two interesting quotes:
>  
> 1) "Library design is language design"
>  
> 2) "Design a domain specific 'language' that can be used to talk
>    about applications in this domain"
>  
> These two statements can be simplified to "Design a domain specific
> 'library' that can be used to talk about applications in this
> domain"? Have you changed your mind? If so why? I still believe
> these two quotes to be entirely valid.

No, I don't think I've changed my mind. The difference between the
above and the Java case is that domain-specific libraries are intended
for one task: you write them to provide the infrastructure in order to
write your application. The Java community seems to have a different
approach: the books and the examples of code available to developers
promote "general purpose" coding -- add stuff because someone at some
point just might want it. This is the attitude that leads the the kind
of bloat we see in Java applications.

Cheers


Dave