Tootfinder

Why Engineers Can't Be Rational About #ProgrammingLanguages
https://spf13.com/p/the-hidden-conversation/

IEEE Spectrum writer Dina Genkina compiles this list of top computing stories from 2025. The list includes subjects ranging from the year's top programming languages, to data centers on the Moon.
"The Top 8 Computing Stories of 2025"
https://spectrum.ieee.org/top-computin

In a world where most code in modern programming languages will be machine-generated, what is the role of an upper-level programming languages course?
Interesting and non-obvious answers please.

"PHP is the lingua franca of affordable web hosting options; or, in other terms, the Toyota Corolla of programming languages: boring, solid, easy, and affordable. You can find, almost anywhere in the world, an affordable web hosting with the saint quadrinity of LAMP: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP; an OS, a web server, a database server, and a scripting language, in an inexpensive package, enabling the masses to go further. Paraphrasing George Clooney, what else?"

The Toyota Corolla Of Programming
In 1995, an otherwise unknown software developer released the first version of a new scripting language whose explicit aim was to make applications for this new platform called "The World Wide Web". After starting as a small project, and thanks to the crazy dot-com years, it grew dramatically to become one of the most widely used programming languages of all time. After some stumbling first steps, it eventually got some sort of standardization in 1997, even reluctantly including some OOP featur…

Which programming languages are most token-efficient?
https://martinalderson.com/posts/which-programming-languages-are-most-token-efficient/

What’s really amazing about vibe-coding is how people are replacing programming languages which are strictly deterministic with human speech which is highly ambiguous and expect programming to be faster and better.
“Well only use it when you’re already an expert!”
None of the people starting their careers using this technology are experts yet, nor will the ever be.
And within some finite amount of time nether will you, the expert, be an expert anymore.

These are three arguments for web dev serv. APIs, even if you have to take a critical look at them in detail:
»Speed Comparison: Benchmarking programming languages using the Leibniz formula for calculating π«
— 2025-12-12
📊 https://niklas-heer.github.io/speed-comparison/…

Wow, just noticed #ThingUmbrella reached 3700 stars on GitHub — I'm celebrating... 🤩🫠
Heartfelt thanks to all of you who've been helping along the way (in any shape & form) and been supporting this work for all these years and across different programming languages/camps! Merci beaucoup!!! Esp. big Thank You's to fellow fediverse people/supporters from various stages…

thi.ng/umbrella

Someone argued with me that using higher level programming languages is just like vibe-coding because "C has race conditions"

@… 👀
https://mastodon.social/@kottke/115735572087447936

from my link log —
Control structures in programming languages: from goto to algebraic effects.
http://xavierleroy.org/control-structures/
saved 2025-11-03

»Introduction to CSS if() Statements and Conditional Logic«
CSS will probably become logically structurable after a long time. It's not a programming language and that's why it's all the more exciting.
🖌️ https://markodenic.com/introduction-to

Introduction to CSS if Statements and Conditional Logic
Conditional logic is a familiar concept to anyone who has written a programming language. Languages like JavaScript or Python use if/else statements to evaluate expressions and execute different blocks of code depending on whether the condition is true or false.

"For others, the exploration of old computer magazines brings the possibility of running old software. Many computer magazines, and not only the programming kind, used to bundle reams of source code listings across their pages, and many an enthusiast would painstakingly type those code bits by hand, in order to have a new utility, to learn a new programming language, or to enjoy a new game."

Retro Gaming Museum
Reviewing old computers magazines of yore is a pastime most often associated to retrocomputing enthusiasts. It is part of that feeling of bliss that comes with the realization that there used to be a different world, when software was simpler, when corporations did not have that much power, and when programming languages were more approachable; in short, a more innocent time.

Pedro Abreu aka #TypeTheoryForall had an epic conversation with me about all things programming languages, out now on the podcast.
https://www.typetheoryforall.com/…

"Programmers, as users of compilers, experience Wittgenstein’s observation every day; newer programming languages provide more sophisticated ways to express algorithms, thereby expanding the limits of their own programming capacity, LLMs and “vibe coding” notwithstanding."
https://deprogrammaticaipsum.com/vikra…

Vikram Chandra
There are a lot of different things we could have talked about in the Library section of an edition dedicated to compilers; one obvious choice would have been to talk about the quintessential compiler theory book, the 1986 "Dragon Book" also known as "Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools" by Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey D. Ullman. As excellent and Wikipedia-worthy as this one is, that is not the book we will talk about here.