Date: 2008-11-02 11:52:02 Created: null
Today I've written my first functional (and multi-process) Erlang program. Feels good, really good. I think my next step should be to get the program running between nodes on different computers.
It should be ...
I don't know, a sub-five-lines change.
Even after this first actual program, Erlang still feels pretty easy coming and easy to learn. I was half expecting that feeling to go away once I tried to get my first lines of code running, but clearly not. Perhaps I've simply improved since I last tried to learn a language from scratch ...
I want to create compact multiprocess programs who perform strange operations. Small webs of processes sending stuff back and forth.
I have
no
darn idea what I'd like them to do, but that's a later problem. Working through basic things ought to keep me busy for a while ...
I also took a look at the changes between ECMAScript (that's JavaScript in case you don't know) 3 and the proposal for ECMAScript 4. It seems pretty nice to me, full of new possibilities without seeming to burden things down too much if you don't want it. A favourite "sugar" feature: you can/will be able to enclose strings in triple-quotes, and then you won't have to escape anything inside it. Just sweet, why isn't something like this in all languages?
Ellen took me out to dinner last night. We had a great fondue meal in the vaults of Stäket, topped off with a simply wonderful panna cotta.
I felt full even when I got up this morning.
Nevertheless, I had one of the best nights' sleep in a while. One of those where you get up feeling really rested (and without having slept all day) and having had interesting dreams.
To ensure I don't sleep as well tonight I've had a large dose of really strong coffee. Smart move ...
During lunch yesterday I got my hands on a Macbook Air for the first time. It really feels just as solid as they say, but I'd really read enough about it already to not be surprised by anything about it. If I was in the market for a laptop I don't think I'd manage to get any other machine. But without real need the lure of the Air is not strong enough to make me do anything stupid.
Fortunately, I might add.