on Programing Languages (2002)

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

The Measure of a Language

Haskell

Haskell Logo 2003-05 Fritz Ruehr
Haskell Logo 2003-05 by Fritz Ruehr

Haskell is a purely functional language. The language of the future. I love functional languages, especially no-assignment and absolute-lazy-evaluation ones. (often known as “pure” and “non-strict” respectively.) Such so-called denotational language is a piece of computable mathematics, unerring and exacting.

See also:

LISP

newLISP logo
newLISP logo. Artist is Brian Grayless. http://www.newlisp.org/
MIT Scheme lisp logo
MIT Scheme lisp logo 2010 logo.
Guile Scheme logo
Logo of Guile. Guile is a Scheme implementation.

[see Practical Emacs Lisp]

Python

Python logo and wordmark JzGtZ MacPython icon MacPerl icon
The logo of Python, inaugurated in 2006-03. The “16 ton” weight is the application icon of MacPython (deceased in 2002). The camel is the application icon for MacPerl (deceased in 2002).

[see Python Tutorial]

Perl

Pathetically Elational Regex Language calls for its own pages. See:

Java

java logo 1996-s700
Java Logo

Java is a all pent-up language with incessant lies.

SQL

SQL is a query language for databases. Supposedly it stands for Structured Query Language, but that may be a fix. SQL is one of the world's most fantastically moronic language. It is a language of ad-hoc-ness; the least structured; a oneliner sequence of awkwardness and inflexibility. There are controversies regarding its pronunciation. Oracle documents would bid for “sequel”, while the venerable database guru Christopher J Date in his A Guide to SQL Standard (4th Edition) Buy at amazon dismiss “sequel” pronunciation being a myth and unfit. I have only read the first chapter of this book. This book is for expert-level developers who needs in-depth knowledge about SQL.

Although there are standards for SQL the language, but it is in practice laughable as a portability practice.

A excellent introductory book on SQL is The Practical SQL Handbook, by Judith S Bowman et al. Buy at amazon I read the 3rd edition in 1998.