Picat: A Logic-Based, Multi-Paradigm, Programming Language

Re:Picat: A Logic-Based, Multi-Paradigm, Programming Language by YeGoblynQueenne on Tuesday March 13, 2018 @04:37AM (#16574568)

In principle, maybe. In practice people mean that they can write program P in language A in n lines, whereas they need m lines to write P in language B, therefore A is better than B because m > n.

Which of course means nothing- I can probably write a hello world in 1000 lines in Java, if I try really hard. Just because I can find a shorter program in my favourite language but can't find one in yours, doesn't mean one doesn't exist. And even if you yourself can't find such a program, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

That's what I mean by "arbitrary": in practice, people come up with whatever interpretation of "expressive" suits them to claim their favourite language is more of that.

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Re:Picat: A Logic-Based, Multi-Paradigm, Programming Language by naasking on Tuesday March 13, 2018 @08:56AM (#16575711)

> Just because I can find a shorter program in my favourite language but can't find one in yours, doesn't mean one doesn't exist. And even if you yourself can't find such a program, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

This doesn't matter. Ordering all program strings by Kolmogorov complexity means you can find the shortest program that can produce a certain output string.

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Re:Picat: A Logic-Based, Multi-Paradigm, Programming Language by YeGoblynQueenne on Tuesday March 13, 2018 @11:48AM (#16577091)

I suggest the string "The heat death of the universe should be anytime now".

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