@Pickett. My favorite languages on the basis of having a good balance readability with writability are: Ruby, Smalltalk, Eiffel, and python. Not very main-line am I? And, other than python, these languages have other problems that make them unpopular.

@Pickett. I notice Apple claims Swift programs run "lightening fast". That tends to confirm my suspicion that they skewed the syntax in favor of fast interpretation.

@m_goldberg Yes, it's probably hard to compare it to Ruby and Python because they had to design the language so that it runs with "C-like" performance. It actually runs 40 % faster that Objective-C in the example they used in their keynote. However apparently that example was chosen to exaggerate the difference.

And also interpretation has to be fast because of their playground feature, which is like a live preview.

@Pickett. Of course it was. All program language demos are rigged to make the language look good. I think WRI's demos are notorious for that.

true :)

THERE'S TOO MUCH BLUEEEE

There, nice

@Rojo. Well, join in the discussion. We're not trying to hog the chat to ourselves.

@Pickett. It does look to me that they borrowed some Ruby features for Swift.

@m_goldberg I take that as a good thing since you like Ruby :). I'm definitely learning new things reading about this language. Things I haven't seen in MMA/Java/PHP at all.

But most likely all those things already exist in other languages in some form or another.

@Pickett. Ruby deference to a program-friendly syntax makes it devilishly hard to parse, which makes for a slow interpreter. It's other main problem, in my opinion, is that they never successfully came with a good GUI library although several attempts were made to do so.

@Pickett. One of Ruby's best features is code blocks as first-class objects. Swift appears to have that.

Got to go now. Dinner time.

ok, good talking to you about this. Maybe I'll take a look at Objective-C and Ruby as well later on.

@rm-rf @verbeia @mr.wizard I just noticed J.M. isn't listed as moderator anymore. Not surprising given his prolonged absence, but do you have any new information wrt to his well-being?

@Murta looks interesting indeed, but I don't know whether I will be using it a lot. In many cases you just don't know what the expected output will look like and the goal of your work is meant just to get it.

@SjoerdC.deVries Yeah, they told us that he was losing his diamond (it's been six months already) but I believe he can reclaim it if and when he's back. We have no information re: J.M. I tried asking SE to inquire using the contact info he gave for the swag package on math and mma, but they've been hesitant to use it (understandable).

Do you folks find LinkedIn useful?

@Kuba. It depends. Its interesting to track colleagues' colleagues..... 'competitive intelligence'. Its becoming spammy with the ''endorsements' (of your skills) by people who have only a passing acquaintance with you. The web-based portal allows you to tailor a sentence or two in introductions. But the mobile version shoots a generic, plain msg, making you look lazy. Useful..? Maybe, sometimes, although not a critical tool for me. But imho, its main game in town.

@PlaysDice I see. Thanks. Well, I'm not looking for a job right now but I was thinking if it might be helpful in the future to create an account earlier.

I think it would be (better to create). It takes time to gather, build and edit a profile, and perhaps get some written recommendations posted (not 'skills' endorsement clicks).

@PlaysDice Ok, thank you for your opinion :)

Its not just a job search tool. You can find consultants, check out competitors, track who the HR-bod just got LinkedIn with to shadow possible job competitors. (+You're welcome).