-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 2
/
faq.html
430 lines (269 loc) · 15.2 KB
/
faq.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta content="37.444542, -122.161050" name="ICBM" />
<link media="all" href="/stylesheets/nu.css" type ="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<div id="header">
<div style="float:left; margin-right:10px">
<img src="/files/recycle-s.png" height="50" alt="recycling symbol" />
</div>
<div style="float:left">
<h1><a href="/">Programming Nu</a></h1>
<h3><a href="https://github.com/programming-nu">github.com/programming-nu</a></h3>
</div>
</div>
<div id="content">
<div class="atomentry">
<div class="content" style="margin-bottom:10px">
<h1>Frequently Asked Questions about Nu</h1>
<p>I've seen a lot of discussion of Nu on various forums. Rather than chase after each thread, I've instead put some responses to common questions here.</p>
<h3>Why S-expressions? Were you just too lazy to write a real parser?</h3>
<p>I have been wanting to write software with S-expressions for a long time. Ironically, now that I've written a language that uses them, people are talking about putting a Ruby or Python syntax on top of it! </p>
<p>After you've written a certain amount of code, you begin to realize that your code isn't just an accomplishment. If you've been successful, then your code is now a responsibility for you and other people to manage. One of the best ways to manage something is to write tools to do that management for you, and S-expressions make code a lot easier to manage. I also believe that S-expressions can make code easier to read (really!). S-expressions make it easy to write tools that automatically format code and that automatically extract all kinds of useful information (documentation, for example). And when something is easy, it usually gets done.</p>
<p>Larry Wall has famously said that <a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/larry.html">laziness</a> is a virtue. But it's not about being too lazy to write a parser. Let's instead be too lazy to do things that get in the way of doing what we really want to do, which is to use the power of software to write better software.</p>
<h3>I'd rather use a Smalltalk-style syntax.</h3>
<p>Then you should work with Philippe Mougin on the F-Script project. He's been doing a lot of great work on it for a long time, and through the power of Objective-C, Nu and F-Script are fully interoperable.</p>
<h3>I'd rather use Ruby.</h3>
<p>OK. I've <a href="/rubycocoa-and-rubyobjc">already commented on that</a>.</p>
<h3>Is Nu a development language or a scripting language?</h3>
<p>Both! I was actually surprised by how easy it is to write scripts in Nu once you get familiar with the standard Objective-C classes and build up a few convenience functions, but I originally started working on Nu because I wanted a better development language.</p>
<p>I wanted a development language that was interpreted and interactive, and one that was malleable enough for me to quickly write rough prototypes that I could smoothly transform into products. I would have been willing to use an existing Lisp, but with what libraries? and what community? The Objective-C community is rich and thriving. Objective-C has been the basis for one very successful computing platform (Mac OS X), and soon possibly another (the iPhone). But apparently it hasn't been practical to build such large-scale platforms on Common (or any other) Lisp. </p>
<p>But back to the point, there is way too much code in the world written in compiled low-level languages like C and its dialects (C++ and Objective-C). Sure, things that have to be fast or tight can be written in C; that's the best way to stay close to the machine. But if you are an application developer, I'll bet that the majority of your application can be written in a lightweight dynamic language like Nu, and you'll wind up with a lot less code (and fewer people on your team). For an example, see the <a href="/benwanu">Benwanu</a> sample program, and if you're still not convinced, rewrite it in Objective-C and make some performance measurements. Notice any difference?</p>
<h3>How does Nu give me "the power of C" if it's interpreted?</h3>
<p>Because it is directly built on the Objective-C runtime, Nu can call methods written in Objective-C with <em>no glue code</em>. And because Nu and Objective-C methods are indistinguishable to the caller, you can gradually migrate code from Nu to Objective-C as your architecture stabilizes. Want to convert a method from Nu to Objective-C? Go ahead, none of its callers ever needs to know about the change. </p>
<h3>Can I use Nu without knowing Objective-C?</h3>
<p>No, at least not if you intend to use it to write Cocoa applications. In <a href="http://www.rubycocoa.com/about">my</a> <a href="http://www.rubyobjc.com/about">experience</a>, it is a mistake to think that you can use Cocoa from any higher-level language if you don't understand what's happening at the Objective-C level. But that doesn't mean that Nu is an "advanced" language. Its interactive console is a great tool for Cocoa newcomers who want to explore outside their box of official Apple documentation. </p>
<h3>But I don't want to learn Objective-C!</h3>
<p>Sorry, but it's really not that hard, especially if you already know C. Objective-C is just a thin layer of object-oriented features on top of C. Its main features allow you to define classes with instance and class methods that act a lot like Ruby methods, but they are <em>fast</em> because they are written in C. And unlike Ruby, Java, C++, etc. you won't need a shelf-full of books to know what you need. Just invest ten dollars in Andrew Duncan's <a href="http://www.rubycocoa.com/book_review/objective-c-pocket-reference">Objective-C Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)</a>.
You can read it in an afternoon. Then start browsing Apple's online class documentation and work your way through the Nu sample code.</p>
<h3>Will Nu work with Objective-C 2.0 garbage collection?</h3>
<p>For now, no. Currently the Nu binary release is only available in a reference-counted version. <br />
But why are you using Objective-C garbage collection in the first place? When you write with Nu, reference counts for objects are maintained automatically and your program will contain a lot less Objective-C source code. Since currently Apple's garbage collection is closed-source, if you write code that uses it, your code is only as good as your understanding of Apple's good-but-never-perfect documentation. Also, did you notice that there's no garbage collection on the iPhone? But Nu and reference counted Objective-C run just fine on the iPhone and on Linux, which can open surprising <a href="/posts/2008/03/14/new-platforms">opportunities</a>.</p>
<h3>Do I care if you use Nu or not?</h3>
<p>Well, yeah! I've learned a lot from the people who've started using it. It's been exciting to see the progress people made with it, even in the first week it was released. If you're brave enough to join our <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/programming-nu">community</a>, I'll help you through the rough spots.</p>
<h3>Is Nu really <a href="http://rentzsch.com/psig/108">more exciting than Leopard</a>?</h3>
<p>No. Nu is a boring language for programmers. Its creator isn't charging the user community millions for upgrades, and you can't buy a family pack or swipe it off of BitTorrent. Since it's been released, there's no suspense about Nu's ship date, and since it's open source, there's no mystery about how (or whether) it works. </p>
</div>
<div class="extended">
</div>
</div> <!-- atomentry -->
</div> <!-- content -->
<div id="sidebar">
<div class="sidebar-node">
<h2><a href="/about">About Nu</a></h2>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-node">
<h2><a href="http://groups.google.com/group/programming-nu/topics">Google Group:<br/>Programming Nu</a></h2>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-node">
<h2><a href="/downloads">Download Nu</a></h2>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-node">
<h2>Git Repositories</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/programming-nu/nu">nu</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/programming-nu/programming-nu">programming-nu</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-node">
<h2><a href="/documentation">Documentation</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="/installing">Installing Nu</a></li>
<li><a href="/usage">Using Nu</a></li>
<li><a href="/embedding">Embedding Nu</a></li>
<li><a href="/reference">Nu Reference</a></li>
<li><a href="/syntax">- Syntax</a></li>
<li><a href="/operators">- Operators</a></li>
<li><a href="/types">- Types</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/index.html">- Class Reference</a></li>
<li><a href="/help">Getting and Providing Help</a></li>
<li><a href="/debugging">Debugging Nu Programs</a></li>
<li><a href="/textmate">A Bundle for TextMate Users</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-node">
<h2><a href="/examples">Examples</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="/randomapp">RandomApp</a></li>
<li><a href="/randomappwithnibfile">RandomAppWithNibFile</a></li>
<li><a href="/currencyconverter">Currency Converter</a></li>
<li><a href="/nurocks">NuRocks</a></li>
<li><a href="/console">Console</a></li>
<li><a href="/growler">Growler</a></li>
<li><a href="/benwanu">Benwanu</a></li>
<li><a href="/screensaver">Screen Saver</a></li>
<li><a href="/maildemo">MailDemo</a></li>
<li><a href="/nuanywhere">NuAnywhere</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-node">
<h2><a href="/tools">Tools</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="/nuke">nuke, a make utility</a></li>
<li><a href="/nubile">nubile, a code formatter</a></li>
<li><a href="/nutest">nutest, a testing tool</a></li>
<li><a href="/nudoc">nudoc, a documentation generator</a></li>
<li><a href="/nutemplate">nutemplate, a templating tool</a></li>
<li><a href="/nubake">nubake, a code generation tool</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-node">
<h2><a href="/">Archives</a></h2>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">July 2019</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2019/07/25/programming-nu-on-github">
Programming Nu on GitHub</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">April 2013</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2013/04/14/Nu-2.1.0">
Nu-2.1.0</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">September 2011</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2011/09/02/Nu-2.0.1">
Nu-2.0.1</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">August 2011</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2011/08/25/Nu-2.0.0">
Nu-2.0.0</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">December 2009</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2009/12/09/stability">
Nu Seems Stable (by Jason Grossman)</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">November 2009</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2009/11/22/vi">
vi tips for Nu</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2009/11/17/Nu-0.4.0">
Nu-0.4.0</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">January 2009</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2009/01/02/macros">
Macros</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">December 2008</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2008/12/03/Nu-0.3.3">
Nu-0.3.3</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">June 2008</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2008/06/08/Nu-0.3.2">
Nu-0.3.2</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">May 2008</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2008/05/23/cocoa-programming-with-nu">
Cocoa Programming with Nu</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">March 2008</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2008/03/24/Nu-0.3.1">
Nu-0.3.1</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2008/03/21/announcing-nu">
Announcing Nu: The Video</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2008/03/18/nu-on-github">
Nu on github</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2008/03/14/new-platforms">
Linux and the iPhone</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2008/03/12/new-license">
Apache License, v. 2.0</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">February 2008</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2008/02/13/Nu-0.3.0">
Nu-0.3.0</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">December 2007</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/12/12/nupagepacker">
NuPagePacker</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/12/12/Nu-0.2.4">
Nu-0.2.4</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/12/07/Nu-0.2.3">
Nu-0.2.3</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">November 2007</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/11/26/Nu-0.2.2">
Nu-0.2.2</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/11/25/a-delicious-nu-screencast">
A Delicious Nu Screencast</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/11/12/Nu-0.2.1">
Nu-0.2.1</a>
</li>
<li style="font-weight:bold; font-size:smaller; background:#eee; line-height:100%">October 2007</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/10/17/new-literal-forms-in-nu">
New Literal Forms in Nu</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/10/17/escape-sequences-in-nu-strings">
Escape Sequences in Nu Strings</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/10/17/closures-in-nu">
Closures in Nu</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/10/17/Nu-0.2.0">
Nu-0.2.0</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/10/11/screen-savers-and-plugins">
Screen Savers and Plugins</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/10/10/markdown-in-nu">
Markdown in Nu</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/10/05/functional-nu">
Functional Aspects of Nu</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/10/04/randomapp-with-nibfile">
New Example: Nib Files</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="/posts/2007/10/01/welcome">
Welcome</a>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-node">
<h2><a href="/legal">Legal Details</a></h2>
</div>
</div> <!-- sidebar -->
</div><!-- container -->
</body>
</html>