another possible answer - Erlang.

While the look of the condition/restart scheme may be very different, such a condition/restart protocol can be implemented as message passing with a known global "condition handler" process I think.

A "raise" function can be implemented as a message-send to the condition handler process followed by an immediate wait-for-response. The handler process may terminate the raising process, replace its value with something, etc. depending on the installed handlers.

While it isn't a mainstream language by any means, a scheme dialect called muSE [1] that I developed for writing logic for automatic music video construction supports such resumes and retries. [2]

[1] https://code.google.com/p/muvee-symbolic-expressions/

[2] https://code.google.com/p/muvee-symbolic-expressions/wiki/Ex...

(Apologies for shameless plug)

-- edit: I just saw that the clojure library "ribol" has an api design similar to muSE's in principle. A couple of design comments though -

1. The "on blah blah" is too much syntax for this. It prevents direct sharing of handlers between similar situations. Function argument pattern matching ought to be enough.

2. The retry options mechanism is somewhat limited - the options seem to apply only at the raise point itself (disclaimer: I've only had a quick glance at ribol). It is more useful to have multiple retry options at different scopes so you can partially unwind, try something, if that doesn't work unwind some more (perhaps involving cleanup), try something else, etc.

I think muSE's design is better on both these fronts.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7740444

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I also recommend a Mozart/Oz style interactive search tree explorer made by a student [2] .. built on fd.js.

[1] https://github.com/srikumarks/fd.js [2] http://minhtule.github.io/Search-Tree-Visualization/

Then again, we can make the same argument about utility providers. If a private electricity provider asks for a share of the payment of the video being served using the electricity that they supply, where should this stop?

I'm beginning to think that we'll eventually end ip with a middle ground where some usages of communication infrastructure are regulated (such as emergency response) and some others are in the market.

While folks are arguing about whether such a breakage of net neutrality will be bad for consumers, are there at least any reasonable market simulations that point out good/bad out omes for each party involved, includin consumers?

At least, I'm not rational enough to reason identically whether I've been primed with death or just the risk of death. So I think this would be a useful exercise for me (and those like me).

Today's "normal pc" compute power is inadequate for 4k video ... Unless you plug in a decent gpu and your machine includes a decent bandwidth to that gpu.

Given that parents have always wanted to film thir kids at the highest quality they can afford, where do you thnk this trend might take us industry wise?

Edit: if i cannot type out this post error free, mobiles phons suck as PC replacements ;)

I find the "right tool for the job" to be a total conversation stopper. It stops the bikeshedding type arguments, true, but it also stops potentially illuminating comparisons. Can we, as a community, agree to stop bringing it up in comparison arguments?

Imagine a new programming language and system being presented in an article. It is healthy and useful for the article to say "We designed system X so it is easier to express Y kind of programs. A, B, C are the complications encountered when doing the same with systems I, J, K." rather than "We designed system X to express Y kind of programs. We like it, but if you don't, use the right tool for your job."

While many of us are polyglots, we do seek to minimize the number of parts when building a system, so such comparisons are often meaningful at some level.

I was given the standard cautionary rules by many, but I have to say that in all that commuting, I never felt threatened even once. Normal folks commuted by bus too. However, there were also quite a few who we were "challenged" in various ways, but still had regular jobs at cafes and such. Since my commute schedule was fixed, I became familiar with them and realized that though there wasn't much conversation going on, the regulars were all familiar with each other.

On one occasion, one guy sat next to me and poured his heart out about how his girl friend ditched him years ago and how upset he's been over it for many years. Then, when a stop came, he wordlessly walked out the door and held it open for one of the regulars. This lady had her eyes to the floor the whole time and after she'd got down, said "bye" to him. He returned a "take care", came back to his seat and resumed his story with me.

I admit I was somewhat uneasy on the bus commutes initially, but this incident totally changed me. Actually, I'd never seen this quality of spontaneous kindness among "normal" folks during my stay there .. and was humbled greatly myself.

I always recall this incident (and all those commutes) fondly. I now think most "normal" city folks who curse each other on every misstep, cant tolerate a couple of seconds delay on the road, who never seem to get a thought to extend themselves out of their pitifully small and limited bodies to someone else; as the folks who are "challenged".

So, coming back on topic, at least start a conversation with the regulars on your commutes.

[1] http://lesswrong.com/lw/pp/decoherence/

Dealing with process coordination using the resolution of logical variables gave me a refreshing new perspective. The finite domain constraint system design in Oz is an awesome example of this in action.

An interesting tidbit - the Mozart/Oz team invented "pickling" before it caught on with Python.

Though the beginnig was with a blow to the head, I did enjoy the immediacy of BASIC.

(Edit: I had to change the variable to caps)

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7440616

Points: 2

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Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7435057

Points: 1

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My mind keeps coming up with generalizations all the time. For example, "the more space you have for your family, the less valuable time together you spend". Needless, useless generalizations like this about just about everything. So I've formed a mental habit of just pausing and asking "really?" .. and soon these just go poof.

In other words, I automatically question the validity of any concept I construct. This way, I'm free to stick to one temporarily and have no qualms about abandoning concepts that aren't valid for me.

The nice thing about Derek's post is that he's just posing the question and leaving it to the reader to ruminate on what answer would mean to them. The skill to pick up here is to ask these kinds of questions ... like all the time.