ode to interpreters::12.12.2007+04:10
Throughout my life, I’ve learned and used a great number of programming languages. That list as it stands now is something like BASIC, C, C++, C#, Java, Haskell, Lua, Oz/Mozart, Pascal, PHP, Prolog, Python, Scheme, Visual Basic, and probably a few that I’ve forgotten. Over time, I’ve come to the conclusion that (no, don’t kill me, it’s not what you think) BASIC is one of the greatest languages ever created. Why, you might ask? Well, for one, it’s an interpreted language. That means that error messages and program results are produced much faster than with compiled languages (no, really, it’s still true today). BASIC also has rather potent string processing (for being what it is) and a good library of base functionality. What this lends to the language is the ability to be used as a RAD platform for algorithms and problem solving, and that is exactly how the high school I went to managed to win the WNEC High School programming competition so many times. Other teams would use C, C++, or Java, and we’d be cranking away on the BASIC (maybe Pascal if we needed data structures), and we’d be done a good hour before everyone else. Why? Because it didn’t take 45 seconds for it to tell us we mistyped something.
Enough nostalgia though. Even though I’m somewhat older and somewhat wiser, I still use interpreted languages for prototyping. Although, my weapon of choice is now Lua (which if you know me will just make you groan… but it really is a great language). The fact that I can forget about the type of numbers if I’m prototyping something mathematical, the fact that I can make pretty much any data structure and not worry about pointer issues, and the fact that errors are returned rather quickly (although not until it encounters them) just makes it so much more worth it to use than the language that I’d eventually be writing the final program in (if that’s the case). I know that there are a lot of people that feel this way about their own favorite interpreted/scripting language, and this is exactly the way it should be. Everyone who has to do any sort of processing work with computers, or any sort of scripting or parsing, or any other ordinary, every-day computerized task should learn and use scripting languages. It’s worth it that much. Whether you want to use Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, or some other language is irrelevant. Just do yourself a favor and make life easier: let go of the shackles that compiled languages bind you in, and start enjoying programming again (or for the first time).