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000076_icon-group-sender _Thu Apr 11 10:41:58 1996.msg
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Received: by cheltenham.CS.Arizona.EDU; Thu, 11 Apr 1996 12:20:20 MST
Message-Id: <s16ce499.081@wise.net>
X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 4.1
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 10:41:58 -0600
From: Charlie Hethcoat <CHETHCOA@oss.oceaneering.com>
To: seebs@solutions.solon.com
Cc: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
Subject: Re: How to thing about Icon?
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
Status: O
I'm still learning how to use Icon myself, but I found in the beginning that the
only way for me to get comfortable with iterators, backtracking, etc. was to
start really simple. I snagged some code from the Icon library that was
supposed to do what I wanted to try, more or less. Even though I couldn't
understand it so well at first, it did perform as advertised! This gave me a
safe way to try little permutations to the code, one at a time, to study the
effects. Gradually, I started adding stuff--little five- or ten-line routines--to
modify some aspects of the program.
The next thing I knew, I had a 200+line Icon program that did some pretty
nice, if basic, graph traversal stuff with reasonably pretty text output. I did
make use of Icon's features, but I still don't know if I took the best approach
on everything I did.
Oh yeah--with all the talk about graphical additions to Icon, I haven't yet
been able to try it out. That is primarily because I have not had an X
platform to use, but even if I had, I might have just been confused by the X
Window display stuff on top of the unusual aspects of Icon's semantics. I
intend to get to the graphics pretty soon, now that a Windows version is
available. But for learning the language itself, stick to text.
Another area that is hard for me to see is how to choose the best from
among the multiplicity of ways to construct a given data structure. The
builtin data structures are for me the most attractive part of Icon. They are
just the right balance between rocket science and brain-dead. But
sometimes it is hard to decide what is the best way to build what you want. I
have gotten to where, if in doubt, I try a list first.
Yours,
Charles L. Hethcoat III | Where do people
Senior Engineer | get all the
Oceaneering Space Systems | cute little
16665 Space Center Blvd. | sayings they
Houston, Texas 77058 USA | put in this
(713) 488-9080 x 3470 | leftover space?
The opinions expressed herein are mine and are not necessarily shared by
my employer.