Is Python your only programming language?

[Nick Vargish]

Re: Is Python your only programming language?

Tim Rowe <tim@remove_if_ not_spam.digiti g.co.uk> writes:
[color=blue]
> If I want to get something up and running quickly then I go straight
> to Python. If thousands of lives depend on the code working right I
> would not be allowed to use Python, and, IMHO, quite rightly too. It
> just doesn't have what it needs for proving correctness, and adding
> those things would scupper the getting things up and running
> quickly.[/color]

So what programming language actually does bridge the gap between
"thousands of lives depend on the code working right" and "getting
this up and running quickly"?

Whenever someone implies that compile-time type checking provides some
"proof of correctness", I think about (void *) and am not very
convinced.

Nick

--
# sigmask || 0.2 || 20030107 || public domain || feed this to a python
print reduce(lambda x,y:x+chr(ord(y )-1),' Ojdl!Wbshjti!=o bwAcboefstobudi/psh?')

[Van Gale]

Re: Is Python your only programming language?

Nick Vargish wrote:[color=blue]
> So what programming language actually does bridge the gap between
> "thousands of lives depend on the code working right" and "getting
> this up and running quickly"?[/color]

I would hope that there would be pressure for "up and quickly" when
thousands of lives are at stake :) So, the only choice in that case is
doing it properly.

I think that Ada is one of the few languages capable of being used on
"lives depend on it" systems. It's not anything special about the
language in particular, but rather the immense amount of man-hours and
time spent in writing checking and analysis tools. That includes tools
that can verify an Ada program will meet real-time requirements. This
kind of tool is really sophisticated (obviously) and would probably be
impossible to code for anything but a strong static typed language.

[Jim Richardson]

Re: Is Python your only programming language?

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On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 12:51:50 GMT,
Michael Hudson <mwh@python.net > wrote:[color=blue]
> mis6@pitt.edu (Michele Simionato) writes:
>[color=green]
>> grante@visi.com (Grant Edwards) wrote in message news:<3f38fbf3$ 0$158$a1866201@ newsreader.visi .com>...
>>[color=darkred]
>> > Anybody who thinks there's only one programming
>> > language for all tasks is seriously deluded.[/color]
>>
>> Yes, but a programmer does not necessarily need to perform ALL
>> tasks. It may very well be that Python fullfill 99% of what an
>> average programmer needs.[/color]
>
> I quite like the strategy of recommending Python for almost
> everything, and Common Lisp for what's left.
>
> Hmm, guess this doesn't cover the embedded niche...
>[/color]


Forth. :)


Assembly if you must, python if you can. Seems to be my watchword these
days.

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--
Jim Richardson http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock

Linux, because eventually, you grow up enough to be trusted with a fork()

[Tim Ottinger]

Re: Is Python your only programming language?

> On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 05:44:45 GMT, "Joe Cheng" <code@joecheng. com>[color=blue]
> wrote:
>[color=green]
>>I want to ask you hard-core c.l.p Pythonistas: Do you use Python for
>>everything? (and I'm counting Python + C extensions as just Python)[/color][/color]

Oh, how I wish.

Although I do like my spattering of SQL too.
And I don't hate C and C++ (which account for most of my 24yrs of
programming). At least not as much as I hate Java.

I probably could use python for just about everything I do these days.

A different Tim