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Two New Microsoft Languages - AsmL and Pan
AlphaAlien (from neonerds.net) writes: "Another Microsoft Programming Language -- AsmL. AsmL is the Abstract State Machine Language. It is an executable specification language based on the theory of Abstract State Machines. AsmL allows you to test incomplete code due to it being executable on the fly. This doesn't mean it'll execute invalid code though, only that you can execute code segments for instant experimentation (similar to the test-debug function in Visual Studio, but more flexible/powerful). In case you're not tired of all these new Microsoft languages, here's another, Pan. Pan is an experimental embedded language and compiler for image synthesis and manipulation, based on principles from functional programming. The Pan compiler turns descriptions of images and image effects into efficient machine code for use with either a stand-alone program, DirectXTransform for web-page embedding (viewable with IE 5.5 or later), or as a PhotoShop plug-in for use with hosts like Adobe PhotoShop and JASC PaintShop Pro (has only been tested with latter at this point, but should work with former)." You can
download Pan from here.
In reading some of the the papers on pan, it seems have a lot in common with that other Image Description Langage, Postscript, albeit on a finer level.
Of course, here is where I insert the knee-jerk comment about having code embedded in an object with Microsofts reputation for security regarding such things.
However, while the technology is very compelling at first glance (Inovation? From Microsoft? Faugh!), I'm just disheartedened that there is little chance it will make it to the world outside Microsoft products, if it even survives at all (there is little real world interest in these sort of things at the moment).
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
Age, sex, morality, location.
Gentlemen, the time has come for a serious discussion on whether or
not to continue using C for serious programming projects. As I will
explain, I feel that C needs to be retired, much the same way that
Fortran, Cobol and Perl have been. Furthermore, allow me to be so bold
as to suggest a superior replacement to this outdated language.
To give you a little background on this subject, I was recently asked
to develop a client/server project on a Unix platform for a Fortune
500 company. While I've never coded in C before I have coded in VB for
fifteen years, and in Java for over ten, I was stunned to see how
poorly C fared compared to these two, more low-level languages.
C's biggest difficulty, as we all know, is the fact that it is by far
one of the slowest languages in existance, especially when compared to
more modern languages such as Java, C#, and VB. Although the reasons for
this are varied, the main reasons seems to be the way C requires a
programmer to laboriously work with chunks of memory.
Requiring a programmer to manipulate blocks of memory is a tedious way
to program. This was satisfactory back in the early days of coding,
but then again, so were punchcards. By using what are called
"pointers" a C programmer is basically requiring the computer to do
three sets of work rather than one. The first time requires the
computer to duplicate whatever is stored in the memory space "pointed
to" by the pointer. The second time requires it to perform the needed
operation on this space. Finally the computer must delete the
duplicate set and set the values of the original accordingly.
Clearly this is a horrendous use of resources and the chief reason why
C is so slow. When one looks at a more modern (and a more serious)
programming language like Java, C# or - even better - Visual Basic
that lacks such archaic coding styles, one will also note a serious
speed increase over C.
So what does this mean for the programming community? I think clearly
that C needs to be abandonded. There are two candidates that would be
a suitable replacement for it. Those are Java and Visual Basic.
Having programmed in both for many years, I believe that VB has the
edge. Not only is it slightly faster than Java its also much easier to
code in. I found C to be confusing, frightening and intimidating with
its non-GUI-based coding style. Furthermore, I like to see the source
code of the projects I work with. Java's source seems to be under the
monopolistic thumb of Sun much the way that GCC is obscured from us by
the marketing people at the FSF. Microsoft's "shared source" under
which Visual Basic is released definately seems to be the most fair
and reasonable of all the licenses in existance, with none of the
harsh restrictions of the BSD license. It also lacks the GPLs
requirement that anything coded with its tools becomes property of the
FSF.
I hope to see a switch from C to VB very soon. I've already spoken
with various luminaries in the C coding world and most are eager to
begin to transition. Having just gotten off the phone with Mr. Alan
Cox, I can say that he is quite thrilled with the speed increases that
will occur when the Linux kernel is completely rewritten in Visual
Basic. Richard Stallman plans to support this, and hopes that the
great Swede himself, Linux Torvaldis, won't object to renaming Linux
to VB/Linux. Although not a C coder himself, I'm told that Slashdot's
very own Admiral Taco will support this on his web site. Finally,
Dennis Ritchie is excited about the switch!
Thank you for your time. Happy coding.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Today microsoft is putting forth AsmL1.5. It's reasonable to assume they will evnetually release AsmL8.
Funny, I thought Pan was the Pimp Ass Newsreader. or maybe they're thinking of the pan flute instead.
Setting aside the urege to bash Microsoft, lemme ponder a few things:
Will these eventually be rolled into thousand dollar developer packages, or will they stay free?
What security holes will be found in them?
How compatible are these tools with GPL tools?
If the answers are favorible, I might start using a microsoft product after a long, long hiatus
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I though asml meant
Another Shitty M$ Language
Whodda known?
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
There's already a Pan, and it's a newsreader. So I think the Pan newsreader people ought to go tell MS to rename their Pan or face court. Besides, it'd be fun to use MS's tactics upon MS for a change. Can't you just hear Gates and Ballmer now? "Waaaah, the Linux freaks are stifling our innovation! Wahhhh!"
Thanks to whoever posted those links to the research site over at M$.
A few notes from the past half-hour:
PAN is old. The fricking code was last updated 2 years ago. I've seen that page before. 2 YEARS AGO.
anyways. here's another note.
http://research.microsoft.com/~dbwilson/ -- this guy's pretty funny as far as Microsoft goes. He's releasing some stuff under the GPL on Microsoft's server, as well as linking to GNU Emacs for Windows. I think he deserves a raise.
HURD - Hurd's Under Research & Development
AsmL allows you to test incomplete code due to it being executable on the fly.
I guess that explains all the security holes in IE.
These products are the result of having $40 Billion to play with. You would have thought they could do something more useful with all that money. Like maybe give it back to the customers, shareholders, with some set aside for a large bonus for every employee?
Reality has a liberal bias
Pan did not trademark their name, and with such a common word as a name, it's extremely unlikely that they could trademark it for anything other than a newsreader, in which case Microsoft would still (rightfully) be in the clear.
If you want to get a wide-reaching trademark on a word that covers even non-competing products, you'd better make sure to find an original word first.
Once again, you guys are confusing Microsoft Research with Microsoft. It's a different place. They don't put out crappy, buggy software, or try to take over the world. It's just a research lab.
Incidentally, MSR Cambridge has some of the best programming language researchers in the world! (Personally, I wish the linux world had more tolerance for new PL ideas..)
The concept of testing code on the fly is one of the features of python that makes python so great.(The interactive prompt part is where you can execute on the fly code)
with such a common word as a name, it's extremely unlikely that they could trademark it for anything other than a newsreader
with such a common word as a name, it's extremely unlikely that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak could trademark "Apple" for anything other than a home microcomputer
Will I retire or break 10K?
Actually, AsmL has a quite interesting story.
AsmL is one of the various implementations of the language known as ASM (Abstract State Machine, as stated in the story), developed mainly by Yuri Gurevich in the last ten years. The language in itself is nice, similar to LISP in some aspects: no local environments, totally dynamic scoping, higher-order, mostly untyped.
There are several implementations (see this U.Mich. page), even one in Tcl release under GPL/LGPL/MPL (XASM).
As far as Asml goes, I tried it. Version 1.5 is a compiler to the Visual C++ language (it's not really C++, you know). The pair is slow: on a small project (~ 300 lines with comments) it took some seconds to compile to C++, and then about 10 (ten) minutes to compile to native code (on a Celeron 433, 640MB ram, Win98 (it's a dual-celeron, but you know, 98 doesn't use the other processor)). Then, it failed to execute due to an unitialized pointer error. Fact is, AsmL does not have pointers! I threw it away, and rewrote the project in Perl ;-)
dakkar - mobilis in mobile
Infinity is really nine million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine.
The M$ corporation would like to announce crapL!
- Faster and easier to program. (Just program in CRAP)
- Guaranteed to crap faster than any other M$ language.
- Guaranteed to crap faster then Linux.
- Do all your productive thinking sitting on the toilet.
- Ever have that bloated feeling? Now you can take that feeling and use it in our new programming language, crapL.
"If a show of teeth is not enough, bite
I was kind of sorry to see that ASM's inventor, Yuri Gurevich, left the University of Michigan for Microsoft Research. However, I'd probably take private research over the hassle of teaching while doing research.
For more information see W3C's SVG web site
for useage of SVG see: The Apache batik project
There is also an excelent O'Reilly book by J. David Eisenberg
If you truly want to be on the cutting edge of graphics then you should look into SVG.
Sgis
"Truth is a personal pronoun." (john 14:4)
However, I can't help but wonder: What's next?
It seems like every day they "invent" a new programming language...
I wonder when Bill# is coming out. That'll be awesome. In Bill#, you just type a bunch of jargon for code, and then when it executes (no matter the code), it shows a picture of Bill Gates, transfers money from your bank account (let's say 50% of everything in it), and then (this is the best part) crashes your computer and forces you to reinstall Windows XP (AGAIN).
Just think of the possibilities: you can spend hours just slamming keys on the keyboard (and get paid $40/hr to do so) and then at the end of the day - viola, your boss (who presumably has no intelligence whatsoever) thinks you've done something!
Now, if only it could be hacked to transfer money into your account in Switzerland ;-)
Ah, Microsoft.
Disclaimer: This comment was generated by a Flock of Trained Microsoft Programmers for Aqua_Geek.
Microsoft has a long history of using confusing names from similar but not exactly the same areas, so their names sound familiar to people -- just some most "famous" examples:
.NET (conglomerate of protocols, tools and libraries based on XML and RPC, conflicts with ".net" top-level domain).
1. Windows (operating system, conflict with user interface element that was already in wide use when it was developed).
2. Digital Nervous System (used as a pointless phrase in ads, conflicts with Domain Name System).
3.
4. Windows XP (operating system, conflixts with Extreme Programming).
5. X-box (game console, conflicts with X terminals from X Window System).
And that doesn't include the use of terms that describe existing classes of products such as "SQL Server", "Internet Explorer", etc.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
However, I think you can take the facts of the comment lightly since it is obviously intended to be sarcasm. Ex., Swede? or Finn? Admiral? or Commander? ... the list goes on.