DDJ, March 2004
Programming Languages


FEATURES

Fostering Little Languages
by John Clements, Matthias Felleisen, Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt, & Shriram Krishnamurthi
Our authors present a programming environment that adapts itself to little languages.

The Bistro Programming Language
by Nik Boyd
Bistro provides a method syntax resembling Smalltalk, but generates Java class files.

Prototyping Interpreters using Python Lex-Yacc
by Shannon Behrens
To test the Python and PLY environment, Shannon wrote a language called "Squeamish" that consists of only 850 lines of code.

Collection Enumeration: Loops, Iterators, & Nested Functions
by Walter Bright and Matthew Wilson
The D language implements its collection enumeration via a foreach statement.

Building a Custom Rule Engine with Prolog
by Dennis Merritt
There are pluses and minuses to switching from a procedural- to logic-base approach for encoding rules.

Security & PseudoRandom Number Generators
by Ben Laurie
When it comes to security, weak randomness is sometimes better than strong randomness.

Instant Messaging: A Programmer's Tool?
by William Wright and Dana Moore
Our authors examine Jabber's client-side protocol, putting Python, Perl, and Ruby to work.

Faster Image Processing with OpenMP
by Henry A. Gabb and Bill Magro
OpenMP-based tools and multithreading can improve performance on multiprocessor systems.

A Struts Tool for Previewing Forms & Generating Beans
by Andy W. K. Yuen
Struts is becoming a de facto standard framework for building Java web applications.

The Business Case for Software Security
by Herbert H. Thompson and James A. Whittaker
Is it possible to make a business case for software security?

Adding .NET Control Properties
by Phil Wright
Here's an idiom for dealing with control properties that ensures a consistent feel for users.

Tech Tips
edited by George Frazier
This month's tips clean up component categories and develop an even better RegDeleteKey.

Transaction Processing
by Charles Curley
Transaction processing ensures data integrity in the face of catastrophic failure.


EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Porting Small-C
by Pete Gray
Pete presents his port of Small-C to Motorola's DSP56800 digital signal processor.


COLUMNS

Programming Paradigms
by Michael Swaine
The convergence of ideas—even dumb ones—sometimes makes sense.

Embedded Space
by Ed Nisley
So what makes Ed think that five years from now PC performance will increase by another factor of 10?

Chaos Manor
by Jerry Pournelle
You can build high-performance machines to the state of the art or at the best price/performance point.

Programmer's Bookshelf
by Douglas Reilly
Doug reviews Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook and The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals.


FORUM

Editorial
by Jonathan Erickson

Letters
by you

The New Adventures of Verity Stob
by Verity Stob

News & Views
by Shannon Cochran

Of Interest
by Shannon Cochran

Swaine's Flames
by Michael Swaine