RPL second impressions (HP 28)

[pier4r]

(06-29-2018 11:32 PM)Valentin Albillo Wrote:  And not only are RPL programs of non-trivial size hard to write and hard to read, they're almost impossible to understand and edit unless:

(1) you wrote the program and no more than a few days have elapsed since you did, and
(2) you used lots of named variables and EVALs of algebraic expressions, and
(3) you wrote down excruciatingly extensive docs and commented most every line

And let's not begin with so-called "System RPL", which makes "User RPL" seem like Tiny BASIC in comparison. XD

This discussion is cyclic but every time new bits pops out.

While I like RPL , I like it so much that I don't mind waiting 5-6 days for a result using the 50g, instead of writing the program in any language that can run on different hw (n1), I completely agree.

I mean, garbage can be written in whatever language if one wants to be cryptic. Even basic without named variables, long routines and no comments can be hard to follow.
Therefore whatever the language, I try to do what is written in the Valentin's points 2 and 3 (in comments I expose the algebraic expressions).

As I realized, also thanks to the 50g, one should see the solution time of a problem as a whole. One should not focus only on the execution time (unless the challenge is to bring down the execution time).

Considering development time (did someone mention debugging?), execution time and once again development time (if the program has to be changed over time to accommodate small variations ), I find it way better to have a program that is slower but that can be extended and combined with other programs written in a similar way. This rather than a program that I have no will to touch because it is complicated to read and understand.
The "no will to touch it" can be counted as infinite development time, and that beats the slowest finite execution time that one can imagine.

For example in the last months I am happily using the 50g crunching for days using a program that maybe is not optimized, but it is relatively easy to read/modify. This also because I couldn't and can't process faster outputs, since life happens, so waiting a week for a result is still ok (newRPL may bring this down to hours maybe).

If I need faster results then I would use prime+android or maybe languages available on termux+android. Since android devices are powerful, silent and relatively power efficient (someday I may use scaleway arm systems).
I may even start to consider python, that I know it is great but I cannot really digest the absence of curly braces (or similar symbols) for blocks of code, if I have no other good alternative.

n1: actually I should use the prime app more, that's a monster on android! Only I am lazy and I don't often open my win10 system that has the connectivity kit to transfer programs with ease.