Re: Programmers requested for dictionary

On Fri, Oct 27, 2000 at 02:02:44PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
[snip]
> <nod>  I've personally never done any sort of database-type program, but
> debugging under one platform is enough of a headache.  This isn't a
> project I'd want to undertake myself for more than one platform,
> especially since the only languages I'm remotely "fluent" in are Dylan,
> Pascal and Java.  OTOH I've seen similar projects done almost routinely
> by folks in HS or college comp sci classes (I wasn't one of them).  If
> someone really needs a dictionary program badly, finding something like
> that might be an okay ad hoc solution.
[snip]

Hmm... I propose we use Perl for this project, since Perl is very
well-suited for lotsa text-processing, such as we have here, and it's also
interpreted, which means that Perl programs are cross-platform by default.
Of course, parts of an implementation may use platform-specific features,
but if we carefully keep ourselves to the platform-independent libraries,
we should be OK.

The drawback is, Windows doesn't come with Perl by default, so the
Windowers among us would have to spare enough space to install Perl...
(and no, I *don't* suggest using Perl-to-C translators because I suspect
that'd be heavily POSIX-biased, and would easily break under Windows.)

Another possibility is Java, but quite frankly, I hate Java when it comes
to text-processing. <rant> Java is too ideal and extremely verbose. While
I admire the purity of its design, I cannot tolerate its verbosity,
especially when it comes to text-processing. The default string libraries
leaves a LOT to be desired... especially if we're talking about conlangs
and unusual orthographies here. I'd sooner code in C or C++ with their
pointer perils... at least I've programmed in them long enough to have
earned a little mastery on how to fix obscure bugs. But I find Java just
too, too verbose, and its militant conventions such as forcing one class
definition per file drives me up the wall incessantly. </rant>


T