[erlang-questions] "Erlang as a First Language" -- crazy? or just stupid?

[Michael Turner]

This is off-topic but I thought I'd comment approvingly anyway:

Cyril here is actually a nice combination of well-informed and
open-minded.  That AS/400 was architecturally visionary and conceptually
sophisticated is a pretty well-kept IBM secret.   As for OO COBOL, it
might have been a better way to bring object orientation into the
mainstream than C++ or even Java, since COBOL is actually a pretty
accessible language for mere mortals, and there might still be more
running COBOL in the world than any other language.  Grace Murray Hopper
would have approved of OO COBOL, I'm sure, and she was a revolutionary,
and even the great grandmother of Open Source in a way.  Kids these days
-- they know nothing!

I was just trying to start with average-hacker emotional reactions,
whether they reflected prejudices or not.

-michael turner




On 12/21/2009, "Cyril Pertsev" <kika@REDACTED> wrote:

>Michael Turner wrote:
>> of programming environments.  Got that image set?  OK, there's a catch.
>>  You know that "choice of environments" I mentioned?  Here it is: you
>> can write it in Object-Oriented Cobol for an IBM AS/400 with a
>> green-screen glass-tty terminal, or in Fortran 90 while telnetted from
>
>AS/400 is the one of the greatest systems in the world, given birth to
>many modern technologies, sometimes many years ahead of time.
>
>IMHO, people who say 'What?!? You want me to program in XXX? No way!"
>are not programmers, they're coders. And there's absolutely no point in
>teaching Erlang to them unless they have an immediate need in coding
>something in Erlang right next week. Whereas programmers solve problems
>using computers, explaining the solution to the computer using a
>language. There're less suitable languages for the problem and more
>suitable, but almost no bad or good languages. They're all good and bad.
>
>Personally, I'd love to write something in OOCobol for AS/400, despite
>the fact that I don't know Cobol :-) It might be a useful and fun
>experience.
>
>Best regards,
>Cyril
>
>
>
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