New project, "Code to Code"

[Marc Lanctot]

Lennart Sorensen wrote:

> Except you won't be thinking the way the new language should be thought
> about if you try to find a way to do things as you did in the other
> language.
> 
> After all trying to figure out how to do a for loop in another language
> may be a bad idea if you fundamentally shouldn't be doing counted loops
> in the other language at all.

Honestly, how many languages differ in the semantics and expected usage 
of a for loop? It's not like someone trying to learn a completely 
different programming paradigm would cross between paradigms (eg. 
imperative to functional programming) .. that's just not what the tool 
is meant to accomplish.

And, even if someone would do something like this, there should be user 
contributed notes attached to each translation.. following my example 
"Note: In LISP a better way to do a for loop is to do <<insert crazy 
recursive functional construct>>".

>> It's meant to be a project that fills a niche.
> 
> I am not convinced it is helpful.  I have a bad feeling it may just help
> people keep on using bad habits in new languages.  Maybe I am just
> feeling pesimistic today.

Are you implying that a for loop is a bad habit in any language? :) A 
programmer's style comes from the programmer, not his/her reference tools.

At least the way I see it this tool would be used as a reference for 
things that you don't remember how to do in one language because you're 
not used to working in it. Example: "aw man, how do you get the length 
of a string in Python" ? You can avoid the Google search and browsing 
through non-standardized pages to find the info you need.

I've worked with Java for years that I became an expert and didn't need 
any reference. The last two years I've been working with C++ and I've 
needed to do these kind of look-ups. This happens all the time for 
programmers so there is a need for a tool like this.

Marc

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