Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ad404b8a372f2b9 1326 days ago
I've already read this, it's not an appropriate description of the language. Those are available in every language I've ever worked with. What is differentiating about this language? Why is it interesting? What is the design philosophy that makes it worthwhile? Was it the first language to introduce some of these? Does it enable the user to implement things other languages can't as elegantly?

I feel like those shouldn't be very hard questions to answer. I can answer them about every language I've ever worked with, and every language I've developed.
1 comments
Jtsummers 1326 days ago
I don't know what to tell you, your questions are mostly answered in the 1977 lecture you seem to want to avoid reading.
link
ad404b8a372f2b9 1326 days ago
You could tell me the answer which isn't all that complicated and you seem unable or unwilling to do.

When you post a project somewhere, or generally start a discussion with people, it's generally wise to establish a minimum context about what you are talking about and not require the participant to read a 40 year old paper, or lecture, or so on, just to understand the basis of your premise.

Even more so online when the work is multiplied by the number of people who will read your post and a two-sentences description can solve it.

link
lolinder 1326 days ago
Honestly, if you're this opposed to exploring Backus's 1977 Turing Award lecture, you are not the target audience. This isn't some obscure paper that's been lost to time, it's been cited 96 times in 2022 alone [0]. It's a huge freaking deal in the PL community, and OP is perfectly justified in referencing it and moving on.

[0] https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_ylo=2022&cites=7066062...

link