Not really a Fan, but still kind of Groovy

Fan is a very young programming language with some promise.  The features of the language are more pragmatic than theoretical.  This means, Fan, like Python and Ruby, should allow you to be productive in a concise manner.  The syntax of Fan left a lot to be desired.  It is not the prettiest language, but hopefully, syntactic sugar will be added in the future to facilitate Fan’s adoption.The killer feature that Fan promises to deliver is the interoperability with both the Java Virtual Machine and the .NET Runtime.  Currently, one or the other are required to compile Fan source code.  However, Fan currently does not offer much in terms of interoperability with Java and/or any of the CLR languages.  That is disappointing for now, but the language is extremely young.  Powerful features like that take time.

While a more developed Fan will find its niche audience of developers, I wonder about the true utility of such a language.  The JVM already has the well-known scriptingly awesome language known as Groovy.  I do not qualify as a Java developer, but I hold Groovy in high regard because of its performance, language features, and *gulp* use of the JVM.  Java reservations aside, Groovy is a language I look forward to learning.

.NET is not absent of nice scripting languages either.  Boo is one such language, noted for its Python-like syntax. Oh, and did I mention IronPython?  It is also noted for its Python-like syntax, but .NET-like performance.  Perhaps, the most awaited .NET language is IronRuby, a dynamic language with the features of ruby and the power of the .NET Framework.  It is going to be great.

There is one other .NET language that I think deserves mention.  It is called Nemerle.  Nemerle is a static language, much like C#.  However, Nemerle implemented features like type inference long before the release of C# 3.0.  Since the latest release of C#, Nemerles advantages have become less pronounced.  But, it still differentiates itself from C# with features like Macros that allow you to customize the syntax of Nemerle (think domain specific language).

Nemerle is a pretty mature language.  It has some integration with Visual Studio 2005.  Also, the Nemerle compiler is written in Nemerle.  That could be a sign of a pretty usable language.

Nemerle is open-source.  I don’t know if it is actively developed today.  However, I recently came across a blog post that sums up some of the features of Nemerle.  That post was the inspiration for this post actually.  Onur went as far as to call Nemerle “C# glorified.”  I’m not sure I agree with that.

However, I believe Groovy is definitely “Java glorified.”   Maybe Nemerle is a little Groovy.

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BarCampRDU 2008

I had the pleasure of attending BarCampRDU yesterday; that is BarCamp in the Raleigh/Durham N.C. region. On the BarCamp wiki, the event is described as “an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants.”

Yup, that is correct.  The attendees decide on what to discuss.  There are no formal presenters, only facilitators to lead the discussions.  Once the topics have been determined, a schedule is posted and individuals decide for themselves which topics to attend.

I attended the following discussions:

1. How to sell free software
2. Twitter, Patterns and Anti-Patterns
3. Fan Programming Language
4. Bootstrapping a business in the RTP area
5. Git

I am still gathering my thoughts on some of the discussions.  I will add links to my posts about the topics as I deem necessary.

Overall, the event was very well done.  The organizers and the sponsors took great care of us and I hope to be in attendance at the next BarCampRDU.