Category:Phix: Difference between revisions

Line 30:

Phix applies the principle of least surprise, for instance in some languages <tt>myproc(list)</tt> or <tt>res = myfunc(list)</tt> can mangle list, whereas in Phix if you actually want that to happen you would code <tt>list = myproc(list)</tt> (and myproc would need to become a function) or <tt>{res,list} = myfunc(list)</tt>. Likewise 1/2 is 0.5 (not 0, unless you explicitly ask for the floor()) and 0-1 is -1 (not +MAXINT). A core tenet is that for any line of code there is one and only one possible interpretation of it, and said meaning is utterly intuitive. True fact: the given answer for the question "describe what f(a++) does" in "More Exceptional C++" lists 4 possibilities for f, and 3 for a (so 12 in total) and uses the phrase "could mean just about anything" not once but twice - shudder.

Phix ~~is not inherently~~ object ~~orientated~~, but ~~achieves~~ many of the claimed benefits~~, yet~~ in a much simpler way. In fact I have been looking for proof that object orientation actually improves productivity compared to other paradigms for decades, and never found ~~it. Not to say that I won't support it, but I certainly won't enforce~~ it. One other thing I have never found is a "good object orientated design", and reached the conclusion that mythical creature simply does not exist, at least not as a separate entity as opposed to some ethereal quality of the finished code. Feel free to argue that one on [[User_talk:Petelomax]]. Phix offers perfectly decent encapsulation at the file level, proving that is not the sole purview of oo, implements polymorphism far more elegantly than C-based languages and far safer than duck-typed languages, and as for the third pillar of oop, inheritance, well isn't the current mantra "favour composition over inheritance"?

Phix supports object orientation, but does not enforce it, and can achieve many of the claimed benefits in a much simpler way. In fact I have been looking for proof that object orientation actually improves productivity compared to other paradigms for decades, and never found it. One other thing I have never found is a "good object orientated design", and reached the conclusion that mythical creature simply does not exist, at least not as a separate entity as opposed to some ethereal quality of the finished code. Feel free to argue that one on [[User_talk:Petelomax]]. Phix offers perfectly decent encapsulation at the file level, proving that is not the sole purview of oo, implements polymorphism far more elegantly than C-based languages and far safer than duck-typed languages, and as for the third pillar of oop, inheritance, well isn't the current mantra "favour composition over inheritance"?

The fundamental goal of Phix is to make debugging easier, a whole subject area that does not seem to get the attention it deserves, despite several studies finding that most programmers actually spend between 70 and 90% of their time debugging. (Most of us tend to think that getting just-written code to work is somehow not debugging, but that bloke with a clipboard stood behind you would disagree.)

The fundamental goal of Phix is to make debugging easier, a whole subject area that does not seem to get the attention it deserves, despite several studies finding that most programmers actually spend between 70 and 90% of their time debugging. Most of us tend to think that getting just-written code to work is somehow not debugging, but that bloke with a clipboard stood behind you would disagree.

Since 1.0.0 you can also run (many/most) Phix programs in a browser, by using pwa/p2js (as included in the distro) to transpile the program to JavaScript (plus a bit of standard HTML and CSS). If you see "'''with javascript_semantics'''" it means the program has been tested and works fine, both on the (Windows/Linux) desktop/Phix and in a browser via pwa/p2js, and in fact unix_dict() has been added to avoid reading unixdict.txt. Conversely, "without js" being present on a rosettacode entry means that (for instance) it uses the local file system, and is therefore desktop/Phix only. It is worth pointing out that "with js" and deep_copy() have proved ''staggeringly'' effective and nowhere near as painful as first feared. In just a few months (1.0.0 was released in July 2021) I have tested, fixed where necessary, and marked as javascript compatible ''[https://www.rosettacode.org/mw/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=phixonline some 650 rosettacode entries]'' for Phix, and only ''[https://www.rosettacode.org/mw/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=notonline one tenth]'' of that have as yet been marked incompatible. The [https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Category:Phix/online Phix/online] subcategory lists just shy of 50 entries deemed interesting enough to bother (manually) uploading to the Phix website, and the next goal is to get pwa/p2js itself runnning online, but obviously without using file i/o directly.