Re: Programming skills required by mathematicians?

On Jun 26, 3:04 pm, Han de Bruijn <Han.deBru...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> e...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> > On Jun 26, 12:49 pm, Frederick Williams
> > <frederick.willia...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> >>Phil Hobbs wrote:
>
> >>>I agree that C++ is a good choice.
>
> >>You must be joking!
>
> >>>To the list of suggested books,
>
> >>If books are being suggested, then I would recommend two programming
> >>books: Meyer's _Object-Oriented Software Construction_ and Ableson and
> >>Sussman's _Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.
>
> > Ah, now we are talking.  Without wanting to start a flame war, do
> > consider Lisp.  It is interactive and very efficient for software
> > development, has excellent compilers, numerical facilities and
> > incor****ates many programming paradigms.  In Common Lisp you have
> > CLOS, the most advanced OO-system.  Its notation takes getting used to
> > for some, but once you got it, it is exceptionally clear and shows the
> > usefulness of program-data equivalence.  Lisp is truly extensible, it
> > does not grow old and any expression ever written in it is still
> > readable.
>
> > Ernst van Waning
>
> > PS Perhaps some quotes may be helpful?
>
> > "Lisp has jokingly been called 'the most intelligent way to misuse a
> > computer'.  I think that description is a great compliment because it
> > transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of
> > our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible
> > thoughts."
>
> > - Edsger W. Dijkstra, CACM, 15:10
>
> > "the greatest single programming language ever designed"
>
> > - Alan Kay, on Lisp
>
> > "Please don't assume Lisp is only useful for Animation and Graphics,
> > AI, Bioinformatics, B2B and E-Commerce, Data Mining, EDA/Semiconductor
> > applications, Expert Systems, Finance, Intelligent Agents, Knowledge
> > Management, Mechanical CAD, Modeling and Simulation, Natural Language,
> > Optimization, Research, Risk Analysis, Scheduling, Telecom, and Web
> > Authoring just because these are the only things they happened to
> > list."
>
> > - Kent M. Pitman
>
> Sure. But suppose you want to DO something with a programming language
> and pay main attention to the material, instead of the way how to code
> it. That's why my favorite language is Pascal: simple & straighforward.
>
> http://hdebruijn.soo.dto.tudelft.nl/www/programs/delphi.htm
>
> Han de Bruijn

The OP asked a question and I added an alternative to consider.  BTW,
due to its extensibility, we usually get things DOne by bending Lisp
to the problem domain at hand, instead of the other way around.  As
usual, Dijkstra knew what he was talking about: take another look at
the quote I sent earlier.

Ernst van Waning

PS some more quotes:

"One can even conjecture that Lisp owes its survival specifically to
the fact that its programs are lists, which everyone, including me,
has regarded as a disadvantage."

- John McCarthy, "Early History of Lisp"


"Lisp is a programmable programming language."

- John Foderaro, CACM, September 1991


"Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally
for machines to execute."

- Abelson & Sussman, SICP, preface to the first edition


"That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a
medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted."

- George Boole, quoted by Iverson in his Turing Award Lecture