mohamedsa

7 ms·

1.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
Does the application have to be a fully-native one? I think an interpreted app would be possible, but distributing it would need distribution of a runtime. Perhaps if the idea of developing apps on the device turns out to be of strategic im
2.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
The biggest hurdles are probably screen size & lack of symbols on the default keyboard layout. I think they can be solved with a little design, creativity, and focus on common use cases before generality.
3.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
From testing with a few children, I do feel that Basic's mandatory line numbers make usage of goto much more easier to learn. I did have to spend some time explaining labels to my students. So I kind of agree with your hunch! I don't know w
4.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
Thanks! I've read a couple of chapters in HTDP, and while I'll probably be alone in this, I don't like their design recipes approach very much. Seems artificial, treating the highly complex and unsolved problem as if it can already be put i
5.
An educational tower of programming language features(iamsamy.blogspot.com)
3 points by mohamedsa 14y ago|4 comments
6.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
I know Scheme; actually implemented my own toy lisp at some point - continuations and all. Still, Racket (or Gambit...etc) is much more than the basic language, and I don't want to spend days reading - once again - how to draw a line on the
7.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
To read code (or math) I find life easier when I can "read" it inside my head. The terse and heavy symbolic syntax make understanding code less comfortable for me. The other thing is that currying + lack of parens around function arguments
8.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
Certainly does a lot of what I wish in a casual programming tool! I just wish the IDE had the autocomplete, quickfix, refactoring features of Eclipse...
9.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
There are many facets to the problem, some of them are easily solved with the technology we have. We need to learn from the tools people already casually program with: VBA, Matlab, Excel, Turbo pascal in its days...etc. They may have many d
10.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
The problem with casual programming is that problems of a given type (say parsing some files) arise from time to time; so unless its part of your day job, investing in learning those tools doesn't seem so worthwhile until the same type of p
11.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
The languages are mostly fine (until some next-gen language surprises us all); I think the current problems lie generally within tooling and infrastructure, which in turn come from our mentality and the existing workflow that we're used to.
12.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
VBA was a very nice step towards the goals I've described!
13.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
Yes, I do feel that JavaScript could be a very possible way towards achieving those goals :)
14.
by mohamedsa 14y ago
(author here) I'm not a Mac user, but took a look at Automator now. It seems a big step in that direction. Still, I'm not sure it makes the casual programming problem solved. Maybe I misrepresented the problem; let me give some more examp
15.
Where is the casual programming?(iamsamy.blogspot.com)
79 points by mohamedsa 14y ago|79 comments
16.
Computational thinking: Why is it that important?(ctegypt.blogspot.com)
2 points by mohamedsa 15y ago|0 comments
17.
Almost all programming is metaprogramming(iamsamy.blogspot.com)
2 points by mohamedsa 15y ago|0 comments
18.
by mohamedsa 15y ago
I know about currying, but there's still a certain meaning to arity even in this case. It might be argued that on the long run the current syntax is better for the veteran Haskeller, but it's still some barrier to entry. I wonder if a Haske
19.
by mohamedsa 15y ago
Whenever I try to learn e.g Haskell, the small things stand in my way; for example everything looks like a series of identifiers separated by whitespace, and the only way to understand it is to manually parse it in my mind, knowing the arit
20.
by mohamedsa 15y ago
Any information on how actors compare to CSP/Channels in that regard? I guess they'd offer similar power but there might be some subtle advantages of one over another. I made a language for teaching programming to kids that uses CSP as a ba
21.
by mohamedsa 15y ago
We seem to be in agreement then.. يسعدني أنها أعجبتك! هلا أريتني لغاتك التي اخترعتها؟ بريدي موجود في البروفايل لو أردت ذلك :)
22.
by mohamedsa 15y ago
It might win hands down now, but probably not for a 1000 years. Lisp certainly includes certain 'timeless' aspects, such as lambdas and homoiconicity, but other features (like conses everywhere, IMO) are simply implementation details of the
23.
by mohamedsa 15y ago
The future is also too long to assume our current generation languages will define it. While Lisp is a major step forward, I think it is by no means the end of language progress in the current couple of decades, let alone 1000 years.
24.
by mohamedsa 16y ago
> Pharaos are big in a metaphorical sense. Incidentally, I've heard that 'Pharaoh' comes from an ancient Egyptian word meaning 'big house' or 'big palace'. Another speculation is that it's related to the Arabic word فارع, meaning 'very
25.
by mohamedsa 17y ago
1) Since early 2010 (but changed the idea several twice, began working on my first idea early 2008). 2) Nope 3) No again.
26.
by mohamedsa 17y ago
Am I missing something? The Winter 2010 application deadline is already over; so is the RFS just a source of potentially good business ideas or is there something I don't know?
27.
by mohamedsa 17y ago
As a non-American who applied to YC twice the article was a pleasant surprise. However I'm not sure America is as attractive to non-American founders as some people think. I'll explain (my arguments are mostly personal perceptions...I have
28.
by mohamedsa 17y ago
Very durable writable DVDs that could keep the data even after multiple scratches, the passage of decades...etc
29.
by mohamedsa 18y ago
I don't know of a readily available solution, but there are some discussion threads on comp.lang.lisp about "tree shaking" and how to could be used to remove unused parts of the runtime before writing the image. Some of those posts are quit
30.
Lisp's IDE problem - and a proposed solution(iamsamy.blogspot.com)
3 points by mohamedsa 18y ago|3 comments

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