It's even worse than it appears..
Sunday October 15, 2023; 9:26 PM EDT
  • In the four line example above you're seeing lots of factoring done over three decades. #
  • It's JavaScript with one change, the statements are synchronous. The Nth statement doesn't start until the one before it completes. This version of JavaScript is optimized for the 99% of times you want synchronous code, makes that the default, as all reasonable languages do. Otherwise it's plain old JavaScript, which is a fine Algol-like language. #
  • The verbs, dialog.ask, rss.readFeed, op.insert, op.attributes.addGroup, are designed to reduce complicated things to their most simple core functionality.#
  • rss.readFeed, for example, builds on a couple of decades of understanding feed reading, parses all common formats that fit under the RSS umbrella and makes it all flat. Factoring is the antidote to chaos. #
  • And "op" stands for outline processor. Those verbs go back to the late 80s when they were the first verbs in my first language outliner I called Betty. Why change the name of verbs if they work, recalling that one way to do something is better than two, no matter how much better the second way is. #

© copyright 1994-2023 Dave Winer.

Last update: Sunday October 15, 2023; 11:50 PM EDT.

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