Programing Languages Mumble Jumble

By Xah Lee. Date: .

Programing Languages Mumble Jumble

Thus in the code

@foo = ( $a, $b, $c );

the left hand side of the = is an array, the right hand side is a list.

If you don't know Perl, you might go “huh?”. That's right. That's Perl.

that's what i call “lang underneath mumble jumble”. Many lang do the same, including Common Lisp, Python, C, C++. It's just that it's a bit more severe in Perl.

often, these lang's documentation, syntax, semantics, have man-made complexity, but the fanatics defend it by speaking of certain “internal model” (as in what happens when the “compiler” read your code).

lang with undearneath mumble jumble do not focus on what programers need to do, nor how things are mathematically, but focus on what the compiler, implementation, hardware, engineering, do. Thus, for example, in Common Lisp communities, you'll see that lispers insist on what the word “list” means (to them, it's certain linked list and cons 〔see Fundamental Problems of Lisp, Syntax Irregularity〕), and outrageously deny common sense or other language's senses. In C/C++, there the term “array” has one very specific meaning, tied to hardware.

what langs don't have “underneath mumble jumble”? Answer: Mathematica, PHP .

for more examples of undearneath mumble jumble, see: