🚀 go-pugleaf

This has probably already been said, but I didn't see it.

To compare the power (expressiveness) of two languages, you must
first define what that means.  "Power" here is the degree of control
over whatever you want to control.  "Expressiveness" here is how
easy it is to state what you mean to control.

So it depends on what each language allows you to control.

Are you trying to control the machine on the low-level?  Are you trying
to control a large database?  Are you trying to control a large project
written by multiple authors?  Are you trying to control incoming text
files?

IMHO, answers for those four questions would be C, Ingres, Eiffel,
and Icon, respectively.

So trying to compare the power & expressiveness of two languages would
be trying to compare what they provide the most control over.  I don't
think _any_ two languages attempt to provide control over the exact
same things.

Therefore, the goal should not be to compare the power and
expressiveness of two languages, but first define what it is you want
to control, then find the language whose sphere of control matches
what you want the best, modulo how well you know the language, how
long it will take to learn the language, compiler availability,
development environment availability, etc. etc.

I demonstrated this to a friend a long time ago.  He's a major C head.
He wanted a program that turned phone numbers into all the different
permutations of letters.  He started writing it in C, I started writing
it in Prolog.  I was done in about a minute and a half, after writing
a few rules that just turned numbers into letters, and at that time,
he was still farting around with loops and arrays and other such
details.

Anyways, hope this helps.

Steve Boswell
whatis@ucsd.edu
whatis@gnu.ai.mit.edu
"Bungee jumping is all of the thrill of suicide with none of the
responsiblilty."  --Gallagher