Re:What Makes the Zig Programming Language Unique?
by coldtea on Thursday October 06, 2022 @08:00AM
(#33107118)
yeah, though in this case they didn't say "it can't be done" or "was never done" - just that it is a "really dumb idea". At least that's what the post claims they said.
Re:What Makes the Zig Programming Language Unique?
by belmarca on Thursday October 06, 2022 @10:28AM
(#33108611)
Which is precisely my point. As one other commenter said: "who have you been talking to?". Executing code at compile-time is a great idea in general, maybe those experts were talking about a very particular problem? It's not clear.
Re:What Makes the Zig Programming Language Unique?
by coldtea on Thursday October 06, 2022 @11:23AM
(#33109415)
>Executing code at compile-time is a great idea in general
Well, it did create a big mess and overhead in C++ for one (not to mention adding another turing-complete language on top of it)...
Re:What Makes the Zig Programming Language Unique?
by belmarca on Thursday October 06, 2022 @01:19PM
(#33111108)
Ah but that's an implementation and design choice issue. It's like saying "classes are a bad idea because implementing them in pure C is cumbersome".
Re:What Makes the Zig Programming Language Unique?
by coldtea on Thursday October 06, 2022 @10:49PM
(#33116881)
Well, to criticize something people start (and, often, end) on concrete examples they've seen it in practice. And for "compile time code generation" C++ templates are an example they'd be familiar with (perhaps the canonical one, as more people know C++ than Lisp).
The phrase "They said it couldn't be done!" is an evocative proxy for technological novelty. If the experts are not representative, the claim of novelty will be misleading.