The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5) - Beta Testers Wanted for Lingo-Uber-Cola-Code

Beta Testers Wanted for Lingo-Uber-Cola-Code

Dear Forum

As you may know I'm working on a high level programming language, which is near completion. I want more testers to find bugs or offer feedback. Anyone experienced with different languages, or interested in language issues is welcome.

Features include (1) compilable pre and post conditions (2) nestable high level data types (3) no aliasing (4) uses existing RC files for dialog layouts. The beta is at http://www.lingolanguage.com/downloads.html - there's no registration or similar annoyances.

PS: As discussed previously, the language may be called 'Lingo', 'Cola', 'Ubercode' or something similar. I know about 4 other versions of Lingo in existance (Linn Micro, Lingo Allegro lisp, Macromedia, and a Matrix package language). If I do use Lingo, I'll rename it in countries (eg USA) where trade marks are in force.

Bill Rayer
Saturday, October 18, 2003

Beta testing aside, are you seriously thinking of having a language which is called lingo in some countries, and not in others? Forgive me if i've missed the fact that you're joking, but... Also, from having a glance at your product both now and a few times in the past, the thing which is going to put people off is not semantic/syntactic issues with your language, but IDE design! (Mentioned before I know...)

Andrew Cherry
Sunday, October 19, 2003

I'll stick with Python. It's easy to learn, free (beer), and Free (Speech).

runtime
Monday, October 20, 2003

Being honest here...
I DL:ed it and toyed with it for a few minutes and lost interest. Why? Well, I dont know, but it doesnt offer anything Im really interested in.

I think it would be alot more attractive if it had some kind of special purpose. The most obvious would be DB-stuff; ODBC support, querybuilder etc.
Or..XML processing, or statistical math functions and grids, or something else that makes it a "best choice" for some applications.
As it is now, there isnt a hellva lot I as a freelance developer can do with this package that I cant do better with Java or VB.

Those are my impressions anyway.

Eric DeBois
Monday, October 20, 2003

After a little more positive thought, what this is crying out for is a couple of simple-ish sample apps! Something that doesn't leave me staring at a blank canvas when i turn it on really. Maybe the first time you start it up, a basic tutorial would be nice too?

Anything that instantly gives me an idea of something fun to do with it, or else it'll be straight back to VS or Jbuilder or whatever i'm coding in otherwise...

Andrew Cherry
Monday, October 20, 2003

Someone else mentioned this, too. I was thinking of adding an 'example' browser to the start-up screen. It would browse all the folders containing example programs, and show a brief synopsis of each one, with buttons to compile and run it etc.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

Bill Rayer
Monday, October 20, 2003

Following on from Eric's comments, Lingo does have great facilities for building small databases from XML, CSV or DBF files. Unfotunately, this functionality doesn't leap out.

If the GUI were streamlined for creating a simple database, that could be really useful. An extension of the package browser that makes it really easy to build Database apps.

Then a tutorial that shows the user how to build their own database in 5 minutes would be a real attraction.

Ged Byrne
Monday, October 20, 2003