Re: Ada requires too much typing!

[BrianG <briang000@gmail.com>]

Jeffrey R. Carter wrote:
> Peter C. Chapin wrote:
>>
>> However, the argument that I see some people putting forth on the 
>> Scala group
>> is that conciseness is good because it saves typing. I really can't
>> understand that. How hard is it to type?
> 
> The important point is that in the real world, code is written once, but 
> read many times. I'm sure this is just as true with Scala as it is with 
> every other language. So saving typing at the cost of making it harder 
> to read is a false economy. Any project where money is involved should 
> take that into consideration.
> 
> As Preben Randhol put it, "Saving keystrokes is the job of the text 
> editor, not the programming language."
> 
Forget text editors, saving keystrokes is the job of the computer.  And 
I've got just the computer for "Rex":  a Sinclair ZX-81.  Each key on 
the (chicklet) keyboard has a (BASIC) keyword.  Rather than typing out 
G-O-T-O, you only type G and the computer fills in the rest.  It's also 
context-sensitive, so you get the minimum typing to get the program you 
want (as long as you're not an experienced typer and type out the 
keywords anyway).

Better yet - a computer I used in college had a hexadecimal keyboard, 
where you typed in machine code.  Think of it:  no verbosity, no 
"comments", no carriage returns; just raw hex.  What could be more 
"efficient"?

--Bg
-- If writing programs were more important than reading them, we'd be 
programming with invisible ink.  We wouldn't need a monitor.  We 
wouldn't need to save the source code - compile it and you have the 
executable/object, what more do you need?