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Extensible Programming for the 21st Century

Posted by simoniker on from the up-and-away dept.

Anonymous Cowardly Lion writes "An interesting article written by a professor at the University of Toronto argues that next-generation programming systems will combine compilers, linkers, debuggers, and that other tools will be plugin frameworks [mirror], rather than monolithic applications. Programmers will be able to extend the syntax of programming languages, and programs will be stored as XML documents so that programmers can represent and process data and meta-data uniformly. It's a very insightful and thought-provoking read. Is this going to be the next generation of extensible programming?"

10 of 438 comments (clear)

  1. Next generation tools... by Lord+Grey · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... will obviously be "forbidden." Yes, I did RTFA.

    --
    // Beyond Here Lie Dragons
  2. Wrong. by Bingo+Foo · · Score: 4, Funny

    XML? Bah. Next generation languages will be written in "WIMNNWIS" (What I mean not necessarily what I say) and will run on processors liberally sprinkled with pixie dust.

    --
    taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
  3. Re:Data and metadata by XML by MisterFancypants · · Score: 4, Funny
    This is incredibly stupid. How come XML helps in dealing with data and metadata? Metadata *is* data.

    It goes up to 11, see. That's one higher.

  4. Re:Yeah huh... by Tumbleweed · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yep, and around the same time, we'll all be typing on Dvorak keyboards in Esperanto talking about the new flat tax. :)

  5. They'll have to change the name ... by magefile · · Score: 2, Funny

    eXtensible Programming sounds too much like eXtreme Programming.

    Maybe they can call it Extensible Fox?

  6. Hmm by AdrianFletcher666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So basically, we get to combine the speed of Java/.NET with the user friendliness of XML and the security of COM? May god have mercy on our souls...

    --
    Adrian
  7. Re:Hit refresh to access the article by RobertLTux · · Score: 2, Funny

    somebody saw the /. coming and doesn't want to have their MSIIS server in a whimpering heap in the corner?

    --
    Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
  8. Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Didn't see that one coming.

  9. Extensible Schmextensible by blair1q · · Score: 4, Funny

    How about developing Maintainable programming?

  10. Re:been done, README in StumpWM by kampi · · Score: 2, Funny
    Funny thing that I read a very similar story last year: it was the README of the window manager stumpwm, which was written in Common Lisp.

    Cite:
    The current trends shown by Big Software is to use XML for all data formats. It won't be long before we have XML interpreters, XML data being interpreted as functions:

    <math>
    <operator>plus</operator>
    < operand>4</operand>
    <operand>5</operand>
    </math>

    I predict within 2 years Big Software will announce the Next Big
    Thing: XML++. An Object Oriented language with all the advantages of
    the superior XML data format coupled with modern advancements in
    Server side Web based technologies. XML Code and XML Data will be
    almost interchangeable, except for some tweaky markup which will be
    justified by the need for more aggressive innovative content creation
    services.

    But why wait? We have it all already.
    Want to see for yourself?
    http://www.nongnu.org/stumpwm
    --
    -- a blessed +42 regexp of confusion (weapon in hand) You hit. The format string crumbles and turns to dust