Some say...

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Some say... Anonymous 08/05/15 (Wed) 23:18:02 d5d326 No.2978

…syntax doesn't matter, but that's obviously bullshit, since programming languages are just another user interface.

However, is there serious research about effectiveness, readability etc pp.?

Not necessarily limited to programming, but also text in general?

Anonymous 08/07/15 (Fri) 22:28:22 941484 No.2991

>Some people say syntax doesn't matter

Who said that? I've never heard anyone say that in my life. Anyone who says that is clinically retarded.

Syntax is literally the central factor of a programming language.

The speed of a compile, or your program to be interpreted, is 100% dedicated to the compiler and interpreter. Those are not part of the language. They're made for the language, which is defined by it's syntax.

A programming language is strictly the set of rules that someone has defined it by. Technically, every language capable of being turing complete is a programming language, so English could be a programming language.

Whoever told you that should be beheaded.

Anonymous 08/09/15 (Sun) 19:56:05 8c59c0 No.3003

>>2991

>Who said that? I've never heard anyone say that in my life.

>some C++/LISP/PERL/ML-style folks implied so

Anonymous 08/10/15 (Mon) 05:59:48 23008d No.3004

>>3003

>Lisp user telling you syntax doesn't matter

They probably didn't know what they were talking about. Lisp's syntax is the major reason why it's so useful.

Anonymous 08/10/15 (Mon) 10:45:06 ab85a7 No.3005

>>2991

>>3003

>>3004

That's all pretty dank and meme'd, but could we go back to topic?

Anonymous 08/16/15 (Sun) 01:15:11 2072be No.3030

Most likely the person who told you this was talking about abstract concepts, in which it isn't so much the syntax of the language you need to focus on, but the core idea. At least that is my best guess.

For example, you could describe rocket mechanics in English, German, or Russian, and while the syntax is different, the abstract concepts are the same.

It is possible that the language could inhibit your understanding of a concept, and this is a case where syntax does matter. For instance it would be quite hard to talk about rocket propulsion in Swahili.

Anonymous 08/16/15 (Sun) 01:50:50 78f706 No.3031

Syntax matters for learning programming, which is why SICP chose a language with almost no syntax so you could focus on programming and not get hung up on whitespace/syntax.

Syntax also matters to Don E Knuth who invented literate programming so you wouldn't need comments (since almost nobody properly comments) and you could read a program like a book.

Anonymous 02/08/16 (Mon) 10:10:06 d6cea1 No.3910

>>2991

>Technically, every language capable of being turing complete is a programming language, so English could be a programming language.

True. But what separates languages from programmming languages is that they are not 100% literal.

>>3031

But that requires that there's no ambiguity in the names of the variables, yes?