[PRL] Of course our programming language can do this

[Peter R. Douglass]

Matthias Felleisen wrote:
> Guys, I don't think syntax is a polite topic among PL researchers. If it 
> doesn't demand a global transformation, it's okay.
> 
> What does deserve consideration is what Joel is preaching: getting to 
> know FP, for example, helps you exploit the full power of Java.

Hear! Hear!  If programmer A types 5 times faster than programmer B, who 
is the more productive software engineer?  Answer: except for trivially 
small programs, typing in the code, is, or should be one of less time 
consuming aspects of writing software.

Lambda expressions in Scheme are succinct, and I like that.  Writing 
function objects in C++ is more verbose.  But on a sufficiently large 
project, I don't see the greater verbosity of one language over another 
as being that significant.  What *is* significant is whether software 
engineers are able to benefit from the power of higher order functions 
or syntactic closures, or map, or fold.

The big problem is software engineers who are crippled by a severely 
limited intellectual tool-kit.  The tediousness of writing higher-order 
functions in certain popular languages is a lesser matter.  There are of 
course differences in languages that affect productivity, but the 
relative ease or tediousness of writing a higher order function, is, 
IMHO, small potatoes.

--peterd