A lazy and flippant classification of programming languages

[lemper]

https://blog.brycekerley.net/2024/04/01/p-langs.html

[diamondap]

My all-time favorite flippant description of a programming language: someone once described Java as "a domain-specific language for converting XML files to stack traces."

[bee_rider]

Surely we can be more flippant than that. There are three-ish types of languages:

C, Assembly: begrudging respect, they are ok for writing kernels (operating system and compute, respectively).

FORTRAN: the point of computers is to do math, why do you need any other language than the language for FORmula TRANslation?

Other languages: Bad.

Honorable mention: Matlab/Octave or Numpy because I can’t be arsed to use a proper language while prototyping. But you can also use them in REPL mode so really they are halfway between a programming language and a UI.

[vajrabum → bee_rider]

'At scale' numpy is often faster and safer than your other choices because CUDA is pretty much a magic sauce for your numerical programming needs.

[PartiallyTyped → vajrabum]

Does numpy have a cuda backend without numba?

[bee_rider → PartiallyTyped]

Cupy covers some of Numpy and some Scipy. IIRC you can even get it working by just changing the import and adding a little boilerplate, in some cases.

[vlovich123]

I love SQL on it's own there. Where would Prolog, DataLog & Lisp fall?

[sirwhinesalot → vlovich123]

I'd classify Prolog and Datalog as L(ogic) languages.

Lisp not sure, maybe H for homoiconic.

[happypumpkin]

Sad not to see any lisps or APL but in his defense it does say lazy :)

[sirwhinesalot]

Elixir and Erlang not being E-languages completely ruins this post.

[CalChris]

Swift is an honorary C language. Fortran is an emeritus C language.

[w10-1 → CalChris]

Swift would be the one ring to rule them all, from assembly builtin's to ORM's, running from 32-bit controllers and secure enclave to automatic differentiation on internet-scale fp16 models... if it weren't for Xcode...

[sirwhinesalot → w10-1]

I have no idea how developers for the apple ecosystem get anything done. If Xcode doesn't crash it's because it is too busy glitching out instead.

[vlovich123 → CalChris]

I feel like Swift falls into the G camp since that's where Rust & Go are and Swift is of a similar evolutionary branch.

[FrustratedMonky]

Think it is a miss to have F-Languages not mention F#

[Darkskiez]

computers

[acbullen → Darkskiez]

I'm sorry

[mjhay → Darkskiez]

no thanks!

[supportengineer]

Curious how Smalltalk fits in.

[AlbertoGP]

That’s a brief list. This video goes into more detail:

“Yet Another ULTIMATE Programming Languages Tier List (2024)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQccsZpEgYY&t=91s