Python is said to be a great prototyping language, I guess because types don’t have to be written down explicitly. I’ve never really gotten why someone would want to do that. Even after reading Code Complete I felt like it sounded like a good idea but also maybe… a waste of time?
I think I’ve just changed my mind. I’ve been struggling at work for a couple of weeks now with some new C code. It’s not just that it’s in C, there’s also some infra I’d never used before to work out as well. I felt like my head was clouded by implementation details that I had to consider at every step, so I tried something different: write it all, from scratch, in D.
Why D? Two reasons. First, it’s my favourite language. Second, the syntax is similar enough that a translation of the solution to C should be straightforward. One hour later I’d not only implemented everything I wanted, but now knew exactly what I had to do in C-land. Which, of course, will take much longer than an hour.
Still, I’m now wondering why I took so long to prototype my solution. It could’ve saved me two weeks of mostly unproductive work. The problem is too hard to solve in your current environment? Solve it somewhere else where it’s easy and translate later.
Átila on Code 