new programming language?

[drag0n_45]

hello all. Awhile back I remember seeing a group from what I believe to be these forums getting together to design a new programming language. I was just thinking about the project and wondered if anyone knew anything about it. Thanks in advance

[Hack]

Moved to General Developer

[drag0n_45]

anyone remember this project?

[Shaggy Hiker]

You aren't talking about sandpaper or doomsharp, are you?

[drag0n_45]

I have no idea, it was a bunch of people form this forum trying to get together and build the ultimate oop programming language

[RobDog888]

It was probably the Lightwhatever project. Search the projects forum for it as doomsharp was removed intentionally by the authors.

[penagate]

If you do mean Lightfusion, you won't learn anything from it except how not to manage a group of mismatched over-opinionated coders — myself included.

[RobDog888]

Thats what it was called. I was wanting to say LightScribe

There really isnt much in thte Projects Forum now a days.

[penagate]

I bought a DVD writer with LightScribe. I shall have to figure out how it works. That's thoroughly off-topic though.


DoomSharp was a C# graphics technology showcase more than anything else. Sandpaper.NET is a joke library. I don't think anyone else on these forums has tried creating a language. It'd be interesting to do again, but in a much more structured way.

[RobDog888]

It takes waaay tooo much time and all my time is already spent on that "other" project

But it usually sparks alot of interest as you get to design a language with all the best parts of each. Only drawback is it will take a year or years with just a handful of people working on it.

[penagate]

LightFusion's main problem was that no-one ever actually decided whether they were working on a language, a compiler for a not-yet-existant language, an IDE for a not-yet-existant compiler, or the logo.

The language must come first. The compiler is not as necessary: someone else can do that, or you can do it at your leisure after you finish the language specification.


LightFusion's second problem was that although some people tried to work on the language first, no-one ever actually decided what the language was for, or how it was going to do it. I think it was assumed that it would fall into an imperative paradigm, but no-one actually debated this. The end goals of the project were far too vague for anything useful to be produced.

[RobDog888]

Well said. With no end goals and solid path you only lead yourself around in circles.

What was it for anyways? Scripting language of some kind but as a replacement for VB or Java or DOS or ??? What were they trying to achieve?

[penagate]

I think it was just a cool idea at the time.

It was the 'best of' VB6, C#, and C/C++. As you can guess, that almost dooms it to failure already, since they cover such a broad spectrum of paradigms and compilation models. I think most of the time was spent arguing over syntax.

[drag0n_45]

Well, It was Lightfusion. I'd be interested in making a programming language, similar to VB or C++, but a bit more manageable and using a more intelligible code. My friend and I were talking at length about designing an operating system, but the chances of that happening are slim to none as we can't get a ton of drivers and such. This is second best.

[Kasracer]

It was the 'best of' VB6, C#, and C/C++.

So... LightFusion was C++?

Well, It was Lightfusion. I'd be interested in making a programming language, similar to VB or C++, but a bit more manageable and using a more intelligible code. My friend and I were talking at length about designing an operating system, but the chances of that happening are slim to none as we can't get a ton of drivers and such. This is second best.

Designing a language isn't fun. If you actually go through with it, it'll be years of work. I'd go for the OS. It's not too difficult to get something insanely basic running (like hello world) and from there you just build build build!

Besides, C++ is already the best programming language. Why would you want to create something inferior? Unless you're working on C++0X of course.

[RobDog888]

Everyone at some point in the start of their programming life will thnk about writting their own OS or Language. Its just common nature to want to improve upon whats there. IMO, its better to find one that is closest and write an AddIn for it or something to make it all you want.

[dclamp]

extending on robs thought, i also wanted to create my own language, but then i threw the idea out the window

[CodedFire]

Ah sandpaper, mendhak and i think wossname did it? Very well done for a joke. Its a pity more projects arent done around here.

[CodedFire]

I do think designing a new language is a waste these days.

[dclamp]

there are a lot of useful languages out there already, i guess if you were really that bored you could make your own for fun, but i wouldn't

[drag0n_45]

Well, that boredom would need to last a really long time.

Designing a language isn't fun. If you actually go through with it, it'll be years of work. I'd go for the OS. It's not too difficult to get something insanely basic running (like hello world) and from there you just build build build!

However wouldn't driver issues and various configuration issues get in the way?

[penagate]

You don't need special drivers for a keyboard and basic VGA display. And with virtual machine technology it is a snap (well, relatively speaking) to test it and debug the kernel.

[Kasracer]

You don't need special drivers for a keyboard and basic VGA display. And with virtual machine technology it is a snap (well, relatively speaking) to test it and debug the kernel.

Well, you do need drivers for everything including the keyboard. A keyboard driver should be one of the easyest to develop but it still needs to be done.

[penagate]

Yes, but my point is that a keyboard driver is essentially generic. And well-documented at that.

[RobDog888]

Lets keep this thread on topic and reduce the chit chat type posts.

[drag0n_45]

As the starter of the thread does it make any difference that I don't mind the chit-chat? LOL I'm learning a couple things.

[dclamp]

This is a technical forum, which is not designated for chit chat. There is a chit chat forum where you can... chit chat.

I think creating my own OS is the last thing i would do. And if i were to make my own, it would be off of linux.

[RobDog888]

If you have or need questions answered on additional unrelated topics then its usually best to create a separate thread. We suggest this so Forum searches will result in relevant results as searches are returned by title hits first and then content hits. So if someone was searching for discussions on OS then this thread would look wrong (by title in search results) and farther down the list etc.

[drag0n_45]

ah. gotcha. sorry.