378 Part VII: The Part of Tens

Pascal compiler) for personal use. Just visit www.borland.com to grab your free copy and start programming your Windows or Linux computer in Pascal today.

Oddball language compilers and interpreters

Not everyone likes the idea of following the pack and learning traditional languages such as C/C++ or BASIC. For you rebels out there, consider some of the oddball free language compilers or interpreters that give you a chance to play with some obscure programming languages.

Prolog has gained a loyal following as one of the more popular languages with which to learn about artificial intelligence. If you want to understand all the excitement about artificial intelligence languages in general, and Prolog in particular, download a free copy of Strawberry Prolog from www.dobrev.com, which runs on Both Windows and Linux. For another free Prolog compiler for Windows, download a copy of Visual Prolog from www.visual-prolog.com.

Back in the early 1980s, the Department of Defense tried to force the Ada programming language into full-scale use for all military projects. Unfortunately for the Pentagon, by the time Ada compilers were available, most of the rest of the world had already switched to C/C++ and left Ada behind. Still, Ada has its supporters, and if you want to experiment with a language that tried to become the best programming language in the world, grab a copy of GNAT Ada from ftp://cs.nyu.edu/pub/gnat.

Although BASIC was designed to teach beginners how to program computers, another language, LOGO, was specifically designed to teach kids how to program computers. If you want to program Windows by using the LOGO language, get a free copy of MSW Logo from Softronics (at www.softronix.com).

Using a Proprietary Language

A wide variety of books, magazines, newsletters, source code, and users around the world can provide help and advice for solving specific problems with programming languages such as C/C++ and Java. Unfortunately, popular programming languages are designed to solve a wide variety of different problems, which means that they usually can’t solve any single problem quickly and easily.

Chapter 27: Ten Additional Programming Resources 379

As an alternative to popular programming languages, consider using a proprietary programming language. A single company usually develops proprietary programming languages to perform a specific type of task, such as creating multimedia presentations or artificially intelligent programs. Proprietary programming languages have the following advantages:

Proprietary languages are generally easier to learn than popular languages.

Proprietary language programs are often smaller and faster to create because the languages are designed to perform a specific task.

Although proprietary programming languages can prove easier to learn and enable you to create fancy applications with a minimum amount of programming, they have their own disadvantages, as I describe in the following list, which may make you wary of using them for critical projects:

You don’t find as much third-party support (such as books or magazines) for proprietary languages as you do for popular languages.

Proprietary languages may run on only certain operating systems (meaning that porting the program to another operating system may prove virtually impossible).

You’re dependent on a single company for support. If the company that makes your proprietary language goes out of business, your program may prove difficult or next to impossible to update.

Buying a proprietary language may prove extremely expensive compared to buying general-purpose language compilers.

Proprietary language programs often run slower than programs that you create in a general-purpose language.

HyperCard

One of the most famous (and ultimately most ignored) proprietary programming languages comes from Apple Computer’s HyperCard program. HyperCard was originally designed to enable nonprogrammers to write programs by using an index card metaphor.

An entire HyperCard program is meant to resemble a stack of index cards, with one card at a time appearing on-screen. Text and pictures appear on each card, and cards can provide hyperlinks to other cards. By using a simplified programming language known as HyperTalk, you can write programs to make your HyperCard stack calculate results or display information.