Comment by torpor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by torpor | Hacker News Reader

That in terms of 'effort -> usefulness', they are all 'flat' - i.e. generally equal in terms of usefulness and the effort required to attain some form of use. There are no single words that are more powerful or more significant than others - and all languages merely contain a collection of 'favoured words of a flavour', which as a whole don't really represent a greater or lesser degree of effort in regards to learning to use them. The thesis is this: All words are equally difficult or hard to learn and use.

Thus the effort required to use Assembly is equal to the effort required to use C or Python, with more or less equal boundaries in terms of the number of words and terms you will learn for any particular language. You can take two days to learn nothing but one language, and another two days to learn nothing but another language; the degree to which the progress of both of these periods is 'equal' is driven not by the words or language features themselves, but instead by your personal interest.

The average assembly programmer has to construct a taxonomy as equal in terms of effort as that of a Python programmer.

Now, bare with me here, because while I truly believe that 'all languages are flat', it is also a 'truism' that "personal interest drives the peaks in the effort curve".

That is to say, if you're not interested in Assembly, but you are interested in Python, it is your interest - not language features - that will be what drives the peaks and shallows in terms of the 'effort graph' in learning either Python or Assembly. This is not a function of the language, but instead of personal interest. I don't believe there are, for example "stupid people who can never learn Assembly and therefore must learn Python while there are 'more intelligent' people who easily become more proficient in Assembly" .. instead it is: "this person could learn either language, but their personal interest inclines them towards one over the other".

All languages are equal. Not all interests are equal. The degree of interest in a language drives its effectiveness in usage over that of another language.

I'd like to see you rewrite the Mathematica code I write every week - in assembler (on any architecture) in less than a year.

I believe you're missing the entire point of programming languages.

> All languages are equal

Only in the mathematical sense. In exactly the same sense that a pile of small rocks (calculi - where the word calculation came from) is equivalent in processing power to a Pentium.

I think the point is, if one were interested enough to do so, writing Assembly language code that 'does better' than Mathematica on tricky maths problems would - eventually - get as easy for one to do, as it is for you to use Mathematica.

I don't buy this for a minute.

No matter what your mental horsepower, a high-level language will allow you to accomplish more with a given amount of effort.

You are essentially arguing that tools don't matter, that a steam shovel ultimately offers no improvement over brute strength. Several millenia of human history beg to differ.

Words are not steam shovels. Steam shovels require a great deal of energy and effort to use properly.

Words, on the other hand, require very, very little energy to be useful. That is the point - the effort and energy required to learn what "(void )func(void );" is useful for is equivalent to the energy required to learn what "jmp %ax" is useful for ..

You cannot compare word-working with hard working. Words are flat - they all require a similar environment in order to function, namely that of a fertile mind and the interest to watch them grow in the name of usage.

Words are not steam shovels. Steam shovels require a great deal of energy and effort to use properly.

Words, on the other hand, require very, very little energy to be useful. That is the point - the effort and energy required to learn what "(void )func(void );" is useful for is equivalent to the energy required to learn what "jmp %ax" is useful for ..

You cannot compare word-working with hard working. Words are flat - they all require a similar environment in order to function, namely that of a fertile mind and the interest to watch them grow in the name of usage.

I tried to think of something to say, but all that came out is: Not even wrong.

I really wish that it were somehow possible to force you to walk the walk and code only in assembler for the rest of your life. If all programming languages are truly equivalent, just why would this fate be so terrible?

Have you read PG's Lisp essays from years ago? He argues against your position very well. Conciseness is power.

I think I've read those essays, but the fact I can't remember explicitly doing so indicates that, frankly, they didn't do too well in terms of convincing me .. my position is based on 30 years of working day and night as a professional programmer, so maybe I'm quite biased, but it is an opinion I have formed and used successfully in training others in my team to get stuff done. It doesn't matter what language you use; what matters is that you are interested in using it to get the job done. If a language contains features that don't interest you, it won't be useful: period. Ultimately, all language features must be judged by the level of interest they incur, and how that interest is applied towards making something useful with the language.

That said, I'm perfectly aware of how wrong my argument can be, but like I said .. works so far ..

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