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From: Alan E & Carmel J Brain <aebrain@dynamite.com.au>
Subject: Re: Programming language vote - results
Date: 1997/10/20
Message-ID: <344BCED0.2D51@dynamite.com.au>#1/1
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References: <343fbb5a.0@news.iprolink.ch> <343FD05C.8986A557@flash.net>
 <34428914.2D71D0F@ibm.net> <01bcd87f$7fefcf00$25a43a91@basil.omroep.nl>
 <34458CE3.507C@dynamite.com.au> <3444BFC6.794BDF32@druid.net>
 <34466EB4.3381@dynamite.com.au> <6275dt$agm$3@news.on>
Organization: @home
Reply-To: aebrain@dynamite.com.au
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.apl,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++
Date: 1997-10-20T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


Randy MacDonald wrote:
> 
> In article <34466EB4.3381@dynamite.com.au>, aebrain@dynamite.com.au wrote:
> >..ines. Due to hardware
> >limitations, this 2-liner was impossible to make "hidden" so I made it
> >Cryptic, and self-modifying. 2 months later, even I couldn't figure out
> >exactly what it did.
> 
> So, where's the code? Sounds like a challenge.

No. Please. I'm begging. I've spent the better part of my professional
life trying to get rid of the "fastest gun in the west" mentality of
programming.

"There are two ways to write a program: Either make it so complex,
there's nothing obviously wrong, or so simple that there's obviously
nothing wrong."

Hence my preference for Ada. When listening to C weenies - er -
enthusiasts talking about how their code is so tight, so efficient, and
above all so impenetrable that it's obviously superior to another
solution (in Ada so clear that "Any Fool could have written that"), I
have to take a dried-frog pill and count to 10. In my younger and more
foolish days, I was of a like mind. Now I think that APL has a place,
but only in small, one-use throw-aways, and where terseness if vital (as
in downloading complex programs over low-bandwidth data links). Probably
other, similar areas as well. I'm glad it exists, as I'd hate to have to
invent it!

I once made the mistake of lending one of these C Hackers my old copy of
"Structured Programming in APL" (a title that still leaves me gasping at
the Oxymoron), and he's now a confirmed APL enthusiast.

>  If it's MCM code, you
> might be interested in knowing we are still using code derived from that
> system ([]XR []XW ring a bell?)

Yes. All too well. ACKH. (Imagine Bill the Cat, that's my reaction) Oh,
and of course Quad ZZ.
-- 
aebrain@dynamite.com.au     <> <>    How doth the little Crocodile
| Alan & Carmel Brain|      xxxxx       Improve his shining tail?
| Canberra Australia |  xxxxxHxHxxxxxx _MMMMMMMMM_MMMMMMMMM
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                    By pulling MAERKLIN Wagons, in 1/220 Scale