'lo, and need some advice

[LXXXIII]

I try and vary my repertoire as much as possible - jazz, romantic, baroque... I'm gonna take Grade 8 in a couple of years, maybe less... done Grade 7, but my teacher wants me to 'mature' a bit more (ie start practisising!).

I also played the descant/treble recorder up to grade 6, doing grade 5/6 for bassoon, and I dabble around in drums and the ukelele.

I can understand he'd say something like that, but I can tell you that, if you "mature" regarding music (that is, practise a lot formally), it is possible you will become too much like a robot.

I have seen many a musician who simply lacks the natural touch of music but who has theory and/or musical "logic" substituting it. "Maturing", as he calls it, will possibly destroy or prevent creativity and imagination, which is the typical curse of western education (which I simply prefer to call "schooling" instead). And without this imagination and creativity, playing piano could be as boring and artificial as typing a letter.

By the way, it's good that your repertoire is so varied

[Xav]

Um, my piano teacher's feminine.

Don't worry, I'm not the sort of guy who substitutes 'the natural touch' of music. I have perfect pitch and relative pitch, and there only seems to be a couple of people in my music class (me included) that actually seem to understand and make music - the others are just, exactly as you say, robots, not making music but merely prodding keys.

[MeTh0Dz]

What are you talking about? D is so-called less pure than C++.

[v0id]

Why is that?

I like many of the LISP-dialects, and they're my favorites in the functional genre. I have however never written a single line of code in Haskell, only seen it written; so I can't really compare them. But you could compare them yourself as you already have experience in Haskell, and you could read a bit about the LISP-dialect. Anyways, it's just a suggestion.

[LXXXIII]

What are you talking about? D is so-called less pure than C++.

Hmm, I do not recall having said that. Specify and explain (and let us pray this will not become an emotionalist bashing thread).

I like many of the LISP-dialects, and they're my favorites in the functional genre. I have however never written a single line of code in Haskell, only seen it written; so I can't really compare them. But you could compare them yourself as you already have experience in Haskell, and you could read a bit about the LISP-dialect. Anyways, it's just a suggestion.

I find LISP very interesting, as with most languages, but a shootout -- supposedly objective -- reveals its performance is lacking compared to Haskell GHC. Well, not that it matters much, but I suppose if I ever get very serious with a language I'd wish it to be reasonably fast. Yeah, LISP looks very nice, but when I looked at its syntax and compared it to Haskell's, it bothered me.

But you know... I've gone farther... I've been toying with Prolog (what I always wanted to check out), and it is beautiful. I don't know for sure, but my gut feeling tells me that functional and logic languages will become more standard in the future as they seem to allow more "high-level thinking" (to call it that) and activity.

All my playing around hasn't been productive programming-wise. I guess the time has come again to stick to a language or two. I think it will be Prolog and Haskell

[MeTh0Dz]

You don't recall having said that.. Alright.

You say this

I have more respect for a language like C than C++, as it is purer. Yes, as is Pascal, C is acceptable; C++ is like its evil bastardized form designed to torture human minds.

And then say that you want to learn D, thus implying that D is more pure than C++.

[v0id]

All my playing around hasn't been productive programming-wise. I guess the time has come again to stick to a language or two. I think it will be Prolog and Haskell

It's always good to research on a language before you finally choose one it, or choose not to use it. Most people just choose a certain language, because "everybody else is using it." Seems like you've got some nice languages for you, so that's brilliant. Good luck in the future!

[LXXXIII]

You don't recall having said that.. Alright.

You say this

And then say that you want to learn D, thus implying that D is more pure than C++.

Incorrect. And, furthermore, I did not state D is more pure than C++. Whether D is more pure than C++ or not is irrelevant. Your statements, coming from a programmer, seem filled with illogic (and emotion). That is no attack, but merely an observation.

[MeTh0Dz]

You are saying that you have respect for pure languages. And you want to code in such languages. Thus you say C++ is not pure in comparison to C, however you want to code in D. Thus implicity saying that D is more pure than C++.

Please point out my emotional phrases and where I am illogical.

[LXXXIII]

It's always good to research on a language before you finally choose one it, or choose not to use it. Most people just choose a certain language, because "everybody else is using it." Seems like you've got some nice languages for you, so that's brilliant. Good luck in the future!

Yes, true. And thanks