To: <Kazimir@chem.pmf.hr>, <icon-group@cs.arizona.edu>
Subject: Re: Do you think Icon is good choice for me?
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Kazimir,
I consider myself a beginner/intermediate user as a reference.
I've used Icon mostly for utilities at work. The largest program I remember writing was 944 lines/29KB. It performed in seconds a manual process that could take minutes to hours, so I and a co-worker were very pleased with the results. I sort of understand some of the Iconish features such as success/fail, generators, etc. Others I have not yet grasped.
To comment on your list of concerns:
. 20 000 lines of code or more - As I mentioned my largest was at least an order of magnitude less, so I don't know.
. Operations on large lists, sets - Some of my lists and tables were quite large
. Complicated dynamic structures - Mostly used lists and tables
. Speed of compilation and execution - Took seconds
. GUI - Hardly used it
. Interactivity / Debugger -
This is the area that for me personally was one of the biggest adjustments. I work as a MUMPS
programmer. MUMPS is an interactive interpreter with list and table-like capabilities, built-in database and simple debugger (breakpoint, watchpoints). So, when I have a problem in it, I can set a breakpoint, run the program, have it break, and then single-step from there printing variable values as necessary. I missed that with Icon.
. Stability - Have not had any problems
. Lack of bugs - Have not had any problems
. Efficient memory menagement in crunching big dynamic structures - Have not had any problems
. Good debugger is welcome, but not essential - See above
. Is it reliable enough - Worked for me
. Hidden limitations in memory or code size, and unexpected bugs - No problems for me
Another plus for me has been Icon's Pascal-like syntax, which made it easy to learn, despite not being a Pascal programmer (although I did a little bit for a class 20 years ago).