From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Randy Brukardt" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: "Usability" (was Re: Map iteration and modification) Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2024 01:03:05 -0600 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: Injection-Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2024 07:01:58 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="3be1e95d7db3e486470d4026586c5457"; logging-data="564121"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18aa+99+ZK5FIN1LcuJ6aqmUFPDFsz/qeU=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:EbKd5e6i2npC3I64bM9V9sZI5zo= X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original X-Priority: 3 X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5931 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.7246 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:65965 List-Id: "Lawrence D'Oliveiro" wrote in message news:unafcg$bpv5$7@dont-email.me... > On Thu, 4 Jan 2024 20:00:37 -0600, Randy Brukardt wrote: > >> "Dmitry A. Kazakov" wrote in message >> news:un64o3$3krch$1@dont-email.me... >>>> >>>>> Usability always trumps performance. >>>> >>>> That's the philosophy of languages like Python, not Ada. >>> >>> Ah, this is why Python is totally unusable? (:-)) >> >> I would tend to argue that it is indeed the case that you get dubious >> results when you put usability first. ... >> http://www.rrsoftware.com/html/blog/consequences.html > > Without reading that, I would never have understood "usability" to mean > "ease of writing". I learned from early on in my programming career that > readability was more important than writability. So "using" a language > doesn't end with writing the code: you then have to test and debug it-- > basically lick it into shape--then maintain it afterwards. Usability is of course not just ease-of-writing, but a lot of people tend to co-mingle the two. For readability, too little information can be just as bad as too much. For writability, the less you have to write, the better. Randy.