From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Original-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Delivered-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 77034D45F for ; Fri, 4 Nov 2005 16:10:10 +0100 (CET) Received: from pauillac.inria.fr (pauillac.inria.fr [128.93.11.35]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id jA4FA5d9014113 for ; Fri, 4 Nov 2005 16:10:06 +0100 Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id QAA02771 for ; Fri, 4 Nov 2005 16:10:04 +0100 (MET) Received: from conn.mc.mpls.visi.com (conn.mc.mpls.visi.com [208.42.156.2]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id jA4FA4iZ014110 for ; Fri, 4 Nov 2005 16:10:04 +0100 Received: from [192.168.42.2] (bhurt.dsl.visi.com [208.42.141.66]) by conn.mc.mpls.visi.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id ADD2082C2; Fri, 4 Nov 2005 09:10:03 -0600 (CST) Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 09:13:40 -0600 (CST) From: Brian Hurt X-X-Sender: bhurt@localhost.localdomain To: Blue Prawn Cc: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: Re: [Caml-list] what is high-level (was: Wikipedia) In-Reply-To: <200511041443.15429.fmonnier@linux-nantes.fr.eu.org> Message-ID: References: <200511031726.59561.jon@ffconsultancy.com> <1131045878.4327.94.camel@localhost.localdomain> <1131071464.10871.44.camel@rosella> <200511041443.15429.fmonnier@linux-nantes.fr.eu.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Miltered: at nez-perce with ID 436B79CD.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Miltered: at nez-perce with ID 436B79CC.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http://j-chkmail.ensmp.fr)! X-Spam: no; 0.00; caml-list:01 high-level:01 high-level:01 ocaml:01 ocaml:01 sml:01 haskell:01 sml:01 haskell:01 2005,:98 softwares:98 wrote:01 functional:02 python:02 python:02 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.3 (2005-04-27) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled version=3.0.3 On Fri, 4 Nov 2005, Blue Prawn wrote: > Hello, > > Perhaps it would be a good idea to create un page on Wikipedia to > explain what is a high-level programming language, As near as I can figure, the definition is simple. Assembly language is not a high level language. Everything else is. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/C.html >>From that link: > Although it is a high-level language, C is much closer to assembly > language than are most other high-level languages. In other words, all languages are high-level, some are just more high-level than others. > because its definition in all documents related to OCaml definitively do > not fit the definition the penguins gave to me when I started to go in > my lug, which was a language easy to learn and use designed for common > users, and not only for programers and computer scientists. They told me > about ABC which led to python which is comonly used in softwares as > scripting extention for the users. But OCaml do need some background > knowledge to understand the official manual, which is not true for PHP, > Python or Ruby. OK, here's the thing: Ocaml is a different paradigm than Python, Ruby, and PHP. If you know Pascal, C, Fortran, etc., then learning PHP isn't difficult, because it too is a procedural language. If you know C++, Java, etc., then learning Python or Ruby isn't that hard, because they're Object Oriented languages too. If you already know SML or Haskell, learning Ocaml wouldn't be that hard. The problem is that most people don't know SML or Haskell. Learning a new paradigm is hard. As someone who has done it three times now (moving from the sphagetti code of Basic to the procedural style of Pascal, then moving to Object Oriented, and most recently Functional), trust me on this. Learning a new paradigm makes learning a new language 10 times as hard AT LEAST as learning a new language in the old paradigm. Brian