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My previous entry was in reference to this discussion (about "MSDN: C# and Java - Comparing Programming Languages") on the Lambda the Ultimate Programming Languages Weblog. Instead of everyone having to download and run a .exe file and/or attempt to locate "abiword", I thought I'd do a favor, convert the MS-only doc into something everyone could read, and put it somewhere public.

This is a paper from Microsoft's MSDN, comparing Java and CSharp. I posted the unraveled (from MS-only technologies) version at http://dal.i.am/cs/csharp_java/CSharp_Java_final.html.

But Lambda wouldn't let me log in any more, so it wasn't much help after all.

And speaking of Lambda discussions that I don't seem to be able to participate in, here is a pointer to and discussion about the third installment of an interview with Python creator Guido van Rossum. "Programming at Python Speed".

Ehud points out a pretty obvious pun (come on, this is someone who named his language after a comedy troupe!) and folks wonder whether he was "trolling"??

Much later, James Hague says "I think J closes the lid on the fewer lines of code angle. I love the language, but it makes my head hurt to write anything non-trivial in it."

Au contraire. Why is it so hard for people to see that "the lines of code" angle is non-linear? It is not the only factor in readability, but it does contribute. Clearly J is in the "too concise" end of the spectrum to be readable, and COBOL is too verbose to be readable. Probably Java is near that end as well. In between, of course, we find better levels of conciseness -- for me, Python and Haskell come the closest.