[PD] DIY GSoC: getting those projects done

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Wed, 25 Mar 2009, error developer wrote:

> i think it's not appropriate to compare pd to programmng languges

I believe that even if we try to refrain to compare pd to programming 
languages, and refrain from calling it a programming language, it still 
will be compared to programming languages simply because it's used in the 
same way that programming languages are and is in direct competition with 
programming languages when deciding which tools to pick to do a certain 
job. Teaching Pd leads to the same kind of challenges as does any other 
programming language if you teach Pd for what it's good for.

> we do call it a languge, but it's rather more corect to call it like and 
> visual engeneering environment whch hase a set of object or something 
> like that,

There's nothing more correct in that, except perhaps politically correct, 
if that's what correctness is. That correctness is all about avoiding 
comparisons and doesn't lead to anything useful.

> if you could at least compile them into some sort of binaries 
> - that would be a bit more comparable

No, there are *plenty* of languages for which there is either no 
compilation involved, or the compilation process is completely hidden from 
the user, such that you never have to deal with compilation directly. 
(Pd's DSP has an almost-hidden compilation step, for example.)

> ..and pd is not a virtual machine either

This concept of compiling a programme to a certain kind of format in which 
the instructions are written down in a way similar to traditional machine 
languages... this is only incidental to what a programming language is, it 
doesn't make a programming language more real or anything. It's just a 
strategy for achieving the goal of running the programme... or more 
exactly, to run it more quickly than by using more obvious ways of 
executing a programme (that is, an interpreter).

> that leads to flae wars like between tclers and lispers ..but to me both 
> are actually quite simpatic ;)) and i can see my self coding in both one 
> day ..

If you know Tcl and Lisp and Perl and Ruby and Python and such, you know 
that the compilation aspect and the virtual machine stuff is very 
secondary. It's not shoved in your face like it is with C++ and Java. Yet 
those are true programming languages because of the degree of flexibility 
that they offer in solving problems. Then Pd is not much different from 
them... well, it is, and surely it's less flexible than those languages, 
but it's far above the threshold at which you start to have much more 
flexibility than using things that are not considered programming 
languages at all.

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| Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801, Montréal, Québec