Xah Programing Blog Archive 2012-12

Ruby's Whitespace Issue

also, Ruby's whitespace issue is not so good. For example, this is is valid:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# ruby

def ff ; 4 end
p ff

How to explain that?

so far, what i see is just ad hoc. That is, there's no simple systemic rule. The key seems to be, that something (expression?) needs to end in semicolon, and semicolon can (often?) be omitted?

if so, but then if you look at the case def f; 4; end, then that syntax design doesn't seem to make sense, as “def f” isn't a complete clause.

see previous article: What Does it Mean When a Programing Language Claims “Whitespace is Insignificant”?

been using git for several months now. Before was svn. (and cvs before)

can't say i find git better (except being one of the distributed RCS). Git's man pages are totally incomprehensible. The MD5 for commit id is a pain. You have to type much more, using more than one command, to do routine commit. Then the concept of staging/cache/index is confusing. (why can't they stick with one term? or is there actual technical difference?)

git being perhaps most popular has a lot to do with tie to Linus celebrity.

was mentioning git on g+, then James Salsman mentioned Bazaar.

Bazaar (software). Apparently, a few big companies are using Bazaar, including Launchpad, Ubuntu, MySQL, GNU Emacs.

〔 Why Switch to Bazaar? 2009-10-30 By Canonical. At http://doc.bazaar.canonical.com/migration/en/why-switch-to-bazaar.html〕

Functional Programing: Make Dependent Functions Explicit

In functional programing, a function's behavior should depend only on its arguments. However, there's another issue that's been bugging me for over a decade. That is, there's no list of what other functions this function depends on. In the past i've tried to pass all functions it calls as parameters in the function definition, but that's crazy. I haven't heard this issue mentioned anywhere.

Haskell people, any thoughts?

Question to Readers: {Perl, Python, Ruby}, Together on One Page, or Separate?

I have a Python Tutorial There, each page, has both languages for comparative study.

My question is, should i also put my new Ruby Tutorial there for comparative study? Or, should Ruby by itself?

I can actually also put {Emacs Lisp, PHP} there for comparative study too. But then each page will be long. Alternatively, if each language is on separate page, with inter-links, then people could page between any two languages.

Which way do you prefer?

i think i start to dislike the rvm ruby installer. Because:

• None-standard install methods. For example, \curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby. This directly download and run a script on your machine. Also, it uses curl instead of the more standard wget. You have to install curl on Ubuntu first. This directly running a script is a questionable practice.
• After you install it, you see that it's a massive number of bash shell scripts. Today, bash scripts should never be written. Even if you have to, use perl. Even python is standard in linuxes and Mac OS X.
• Doesn't respect linux system standard ways.
• Doesn't work out of the box. After install, it asks you confusingly and questionably to run a shell script, and ask you to run it in a separate terminal.
• It add lines to your shell init file to load a massive shell script. Not simply append to your $PATH. This is questionable practice again. It slows down your shell startup.
• But when you restart, it doesn't work. Because it adds to “.bash_profile” but not to “.bashrc”
• rvm isn't a normal tool. It's not a script or binary. Instead, “rvm” is a bash function.
• After install, when you type gem, it's also a shell function. Very annoying. It seems to have lots wrappers, and fckup standard ways of doing things. For example, when you type rvm to see what/where it is, pages scrolls thru.

the whole shebang smells bad.

It appears to me, the whole rvm is a one-man's project, and somehow got very popular. Doesn't respect standard ways. Written in 30 years old tech.

Addendum: thanks to ruby rvm dev Michal Papis who helped me solve a problem. When installing rvm, be sure to read rvm requirements.

The Contempt Page ~2002-07-21 By Mr. Schnada. At http://www.schnada.de/quotes/contempt.html

The basis of computer languages' merit lies in their mathematical properties. It is this metric, that we should use as a guide for direction. As an analogy, we measure the quality of a hammer by scientific principles: ergonomics, material (weight, hardness. . .), construction, statistical analysis of accidents/productivity/… …etc., not by vogue or lore. If we go by feelings and preferences, hammer's future will deviate and perhaps become dildos or maces.

—Xah Lee in comp.lang.lisp, July 2000. the Measure of a Language

Perl's gluing ability goes beyond computation, to people. To the poor and have-nots. It unites people in the computing field who are not endowed with fancy engaging brains. It is the sanctuary of dunces. The expressions of those thoughtless. The godsend for brainless coders. The means and banner of sys admins. The lingua franca of trial-and-error hackers. The song and dance of stultified engineers.

—Xah Lee in comp.lang.lisp, December 2000. Perl's raison d'être

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