From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e6a2e4a4c0d7d8a6 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 101deb,3488d9e5d292649f X-Google-Attributes: gid101deb,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-02-22 11:56:13 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: mojaveg@mojaveg.iwvisp.com (Everett M. Greene) Newsgroups: comp.lang.pl1,comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: status of PL/I as a viable language Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 11:55:22 PST Organization: none that you'd notice Message-ID: <20030222.7982838.ABFA@mojaveg.iwvisp.com> References: <1045856952.418085@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <8C8A06BCD0B3376D.01247F5E9E2652B0.5BB268703A0C3D85@lp.airnews.net> <1045863617.243086@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> X-Newsreader: GRn 3.2n February 9, 1999 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.pl1:4423 comp.lang.ada:34440 Date: 2003-02-22T11:55:22-08:00 List-Id: Hyman Rosen writes: > John R. Strohm wrote: > > And that "simple little limited regular expression matcher" passed the > > formal customer acceptance test on the first try, with no deviations or > > waivers or anything. > > But it took them *two years* to get it specified, designed, and built. > Maybe it was a polished piece of perfection, but that's a very long > time to build a message filter. One has to consider the economics of the situation. Is perfection a requirement or just a target? There is a point of diminishing returns beyond which it isn't worth the time and expense to ensure perfection.