~/talk

What Counts as a Programming Language

on YouTube 39m
Talkat Code Mesh LDN 2020 · 2020-11-05..11-06· [compilers-and-language-design]

speaker

name:Chelsie Troy
links:none on file

resources

video:https://youtu.be/odGThK5mp1A
slides:none on file

summary

Argues that whether something is a programming language depends on assumed context not formal definitions, and shows concrete comparisons: Alloy, TLA+, Modelica and Cypher expose checks and diagrammatic queries that general languages miss; implements an interpreter from Crafting Interpreters and trades legibility for speed in lexer design; notes three failed diagrammatic language attempts; recommends writing two or three "always true" rules, locating their context, and testing ideas across domain-specific boundaries.

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chapters (13)

  1. 0:00Intro
  2. 2:45Many professional programmers aren't so inclusive, • Does It have to be Turing complete? • Does it have to be usable for solving a specific kind of problem? • Does it have to actually be used for solving that problem? • Does it have to have a compiler and/or interpreter?
  3. 7:30Is a query language a programming language?
  4. 8:38Context: The descriptors that characterize our specific situation
  5. 17:51"General" programming languages differ from "domain-specific" programming languages.
  6. 19:34Default domain for programming languages: end user applications where the user can change something
  7. 25:58What separates converting CSVs into JSON format
  8. 26:41There may be more value in learning to identify contexts, and share information across contexts, than in formalizing our understanding of the differences between DSLs in two separate domains.
  9. 27:31You can access a deeper and better-connected understanding of programming languages...
  10. 27:59What principles, ideas, or "best practices" do you think of as always right, or generally right?
  11. 28:36Maybe there is a context in which that is the case.
  12. 29:15Go looking for contexts that are different from yours to better understand why your best practices work in your context
  13. 29:53Now, go looking for similar contexts to yours. What can your tried-and-true approaches contribute to this similar context? What can you learn from this similar context about what to try in your own context?

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