Crimson Crux

UML users no longer need to be software-centric with the arrival of SysML. The system-level design language SysML represents all elements of an electronic system, from hardware to software. Created primarily for systems engineers, SysML is both a subset to and an extension of UML.

According to the EETimes.com article, SysML took a major step towards standardization in late April, when key committees of the Object Management Group approved the SysML Team’s language 1.0 specification.

Several salient additions to UML provided by SysML:

• Requirements modeling
• Parametric models
• Extensions that support the flow of data/matter/energy (UML supports discrete events)

More information can be found on the language’s official website.

‘Exotic’ Programming Tools Go Mainstream

I didn’t quite expect this, but I guess it’s about time these languages are used by more people. Let’s see if they upgrade from “mainstream” to “popular” in the years to come.

(Does this mean my brief exposure to these languages might not have been in vain? Gasp!)

What’s hot and what’s not in the programming world are all summed up in Infoworld’s 2005 Developers Research Report. Infoworld based their results on a sample of approximately 300 developers.

A preview:

What’s Hot:

• Web services
• Service-oriented architecture
• Open source tools for the business community
• Dynamic scripting tools
• Linux (to be the standard mainframe OS)
• Java
• Python
• Ruby
• Microsoft’s .Net environment
• Mac OS X

What’s Not:

• Pure compiled and traditional development languages (e.g. Ada, C, C++, Fortran)
• Assembly languages
• Win32
• Unix (being supplanted by Linux)
• Solaris (only being “able to tread water”)

Now, I know some of you might be a little bit surprised that C and C++ are included in the What’s Not list. Even the article (“C and C++ Give Way To Managed Code”) states, “C remains the implementation language of choice for Linux, the Apache Web server, the MySQL database, and other key open source projects”. But then it adds, “It’s a terrific language for systems programming and infrastructure-level software, but it’s less suited to the needs of straightforward applications.” You be the judge if this is true or not; read the article for more details.

…But not necessarily to have excelled in it!

Lisp ranks up there among the most difficult languages I’ve tried. The UP Diliman BS CS program exposes its students to a wide array of programming languages and paradigms (object-oriented, expression-oriented, and so on), and Lisp was one of those ‘heavyweights’ in CS 150. Other languages were Perl, Tcl, Haskell, Python, Smalltalk, and Prolog.The good and bad memories of Lisp:

1. GOOD. Of course, hurdling a language most programmers would find alien always feels good.
   
2. BAD. “Give an overview of the Lisp syntax” was the question I drew for a 5-minute oral exam. It was the only topic I wasn’t prepared for out of a dozen.
3. GOOD. Sophia and I managed to finish LUKIM: A Pure Lisp Interpreter in Java on the deadline, evading an Incomplete grade!
4. BAD. Have you tried coding a Lisp program by hand in a pressure-packed exam?

Even steven, I guess!

*Those nice Lisp logos come from Lisperati.com.