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1. Embed this notice
   Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 29-Jul-2024 21:35:47 JST Charlie Stross

   Resisting the urge to say "hands up if you know what linguistic styles these represent"

   (because yes I do, and I don't need a chorus-line of reply guys in my mentions for the next six months)
   https://botsin.space/@computerfact/112863751661179798

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     Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Monday, 29-Jul-2024 21:35:52 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     @cstross mastodon sometimes feels like you're constantly having to judge if the joke is funny enough to justify all the replies it'd get

     clacke likes this.
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     Robin Burchell (rburchell@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 29-Jul-2024 21:35:56 JST Robin Burchell

     in reply to

     • Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     @cstross @foone I solved this problem by not being popular. I can highly recommend it.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 29-Jul-2024 21:35:57 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     Looks at follower count of @foone …

     Yeah, that'd be a hard agree. Probably applies to anyone with >1000 followers.

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     Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Monday, 29-Jul-2024 21:36:02 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     @cstross yeah I think it's something like "one out of a thousand people doesn't understand humor". And once you have like 30,000 followers, you risk your post being seen by 30 of those guys.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Hugo Mills (darkling@mstdn.social)'s status on Monday, 29-Jul-2024 21:36:07 JST Hugo Mills

     in reply to

     @cstross I'm trying to learn the last one at the moment (about 40 years after first reading the book on it). I haven't had so many segfaults in about 20 years.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Monday, 29-Jul-2024 21:36:09 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     @cstross

     I once programmed a UI using NeWS (basically postscript for interactive displays rather than print). No parenthesis to match up. Just a stack you mentally kept track of with your human brain. ... The pain ... the pain ...

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   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Tuesday, 30-Jul-2024 04:08:14 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Qole

     @qole Just some good old tribe in-fighting.

     C syntax people are the mainstream, the 99% coders, Lisp syntax people are the esoteric tribe, and Forth syntax is the dark low-level incantation of the obscure resource-strapped embedded system that may not even have an operating system.

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     Qole (qole@techhub.social)'s status on Tuesday, 30-Jul-2024 04:08:15 JST Qole

     in reply to

     • clacke

     @clacke
     Thanks for the detailed breakdown of the different language styles, but what do the different responses mean? Why anger then fear?

   • Embed this notice
     Qole (qole@techhub.social)'s status on Tuesday, 30-Jul-2024 04:08:17 JST Qole

     in reply to

     @cstross I just wish there was an explanation of the joke. I'd like to understand.

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Tuesday, 30-Jul-2024 04:08:17 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Qole

     Carefully not mentioning OP here. 😄

     @qole Explanation:

     `foo(bar(), baz(1))`
     is the style of commercially widely used languages like Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, C, etc.

     `(foo (bar) (baz 1))` is the style of LISP-related languages like Clojure, Scheme, Racket or Common Lisp. They're less popular today, but saw great use in 1980s AI research, some web work in the 1990s, and in modern times Clojure has grown a loyal following in some commercial web development houses.

     `1 baz bar foo` is reverse Polish notation, which is used in the various Forth languages, including previous Sun and Apple boot managers, in PostScript documents and in HP's programmable calculators.

     The style of popular (within their niche) functional languages like OCaml and Haskell is not represented, and might look a number of ways, e.g. `foo bar $ baz 1`.

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     Qole (qole@techhub.social)'s status on Tuesday, 30-Jul-2024 04:15:39 JST Qole

     in reply to

     • clacke

     @clacke Thanks, that's the joke! I understand it now!

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