The (Programming Language) Hat

http://www.drmaciver.com/2011/06/the-programming-language-hat/

by fogus • 15 years ago

35 18 15 years ago

quanticle• 15 years ago

I would add:

    The Lisp hat: basically a yarmulke; i.e. a ) on your 
    head.

gaius• 15 years ago

The Ruby hat is very short and made of pleated tartan. On top it has tentacles.

hvs2• 15 years ago

I'd say that the COBOL hat would be one of those thin-brimmed fedoras from the 60's, but that's just too cool for COBOL. COBOL doesn't get a hat that was worn by Frank Sinatra.

ryan_brunner• 15 years ago

I'd go for the green eyeshade:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Visorlayout.jpg

Anachronistic, looks absolutely silly if worn today, and was probably only worn by uptight number crunchers even back in the 60's.

hvs2• 15 years ago

Good call on the green eyeshade.

wisty• 15 years ago

Perhaps COBOL can get a straw boater?

expanse• 15 years ago

If I read another article of the form "If language X were a Y, it'd have property Z", I might throw myself off of a bridge.

DRMacIver3• 15 years ago

If programming languages were hacker news comments this one would be common lisp.

dkarl2• 15 years ago

Humorless, unappealing, but hard to disagree with?

Swizec• 15 years ago

A true gem from the comments thread on the article:

"The PHP Hat: Designed to fit on your head, but actually only fits on your knee."

adaml_623• 15 years ago

Nah the PHP hat is an ugly beanie knitted by your gran that keeps your head really warm. But isn't totally comfortable.

skimbrel• 15 years ago

There's a comment on the article complaining about the hate for Perl -- I agree with its sentiment but not the way it characterizes so-called "brain damaged" people.

Modern Perl is really a very different language than what people tend to think of when they hear the word "Perl". It has a real OO layer (Moose), a mature set of web frameworks (Plack), and generally-accepted best practices that ensure code is just as readable and maintainable as Python or Ruby.

If all you know of Perl is hacky one-liners for munging logfiles, skim a copy of the book Modern Perl: http://onyxneon.com/books/modern_perl/index.html . You might just learn something.

DRMacIver3• 15 years ago

I know. I actually keep meaning to properly learn perl (I can just about read it and don't really bother using it for one liners as I tend to find joe-random-scripting language + sedawk cover enough bases).

But when one prefaces a post with "You know what we haven’t had in a while? An irritating but catchy meme in which we shallowly compare programming languages based on superficial characteristics. Those are awesome" people who take it seriously deserve what they get :-)

dkarl2• 15 years ago

The fact that Perl's OO "layer" has a name isn't very reassuring, even if it is a nice solid name like "Moose."

chromatic• 15 years ago

CLOS has a name. It's CLOS.

a3_nm• 15 years ago

What's the Hatter hat, then?

http://esolangs.org/wiki/Hatter

The (Programming Language) Hat

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