On 11/14/11 7:15 PM, Jeff Nowakowski wrote:
On 11/14/2011 08:05 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
That doesn't seem the case to me at all. Multi-paradigm programming
language has a rather precise meaning - it's a language that allows
several of the classic programming styles (functional, object-oriented,
procedural, generic).
It's not precise at all. Very few languages are actually
single-paradigm. Is C++ multi-paradigm, even though it bills itself as
such? Well compared to Smalltalk it is, but its functional support is
crap, and generics are a nightmare. Is Java multi-paradigm? Why not? It
isn't as religious as Smalltalk, has primites and arrays, with some
generic support, and you can always kluge functional programming. What
about Common Lisp? Sure, it has lots of parenthesis, but you can bend
the language and it has support for objects (CLOS).
Statements and views can be bent in various ways. For example, I think
it would be tenuous to bill Java as multi-paradigm. Of course you could
if you really wanted, but you'd go against the grain.
Here we're trying to build a brief and clear message about D's
differentiating qualities. We're not trying to defend D in a court of
law. Of course "multi-paradigm" is not precise in the sense that e.g. a
math theorem, a formal specification, or a legal document is. That goes
without saying. What I meant to say is that it is more precise than e.g.
"productive" or "with modeling power".
Multi-paradigm is *not* a selling point. Explicit features are.
We have a good amount of evidence suggesting that laundry lists of
features are a weak means to sell D.
This is
one of these cases where you are arguing from a dead-end position.
I think it's simpler than that - to be frank, it's probably the time to
reckon it's you who is the problem. Almost without exception, you only
post from an already emotionally loaded, negative frame. It's like when
you're posting you're already furious and indignant, but you never allow
that state to be avoided by engaging in dialog early. Just take an
objective look at your earlier posts - there's hardly one shred of good
intention and helpfulness in any of them. You didn't disappoint this
time either.
A
reaction about marketing from your community cannot be explained away,
because marketing is about about perceptions.
The reaction is generally positive, and we got a lot of great feedback
and offers for help. Still waiting for yours.
Andrei
