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=-0.0 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_40 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: William & Melissa Thornton Subject: Re: ADA and Pascal SUCK, C,C++, and Java are the only languages you need!! Date: 1997/11/06 Message-ID: <34627282.AB08DBFB@avicom.net> X-Deja-AN: 287566529 Sender: Ada programming language References: <34557f2b.1934172@news.mindspring.com> <34566fe9.447229@news.mindspring.com> <345673af.1413708@news.mindspring.com> <3456A374.5BF2@public.hz.zj.cn> <63b4ao$ctf$1@news.inc.net> Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-11-06T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------2C06438E1EDAEBDA78A851A2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit VERY WELL SAID! John Stevens wrote: > > On Thu, 30 Oct 1997 17:11:26 -0600, Scott Baierl wrote: > > > >Smart programmers spend their time learning programming languages that help > >them solve the real-world problems in their particular application domain. > > Umm. . . no. Smart programmers live, learn, and grow up to be sofware > engineers. Software engineers live, learn, and grow up to be system > architects. System architects live, learn, and grow up to be Computer > Scientists. > > The constant in all this is to move from the concrete, to ever more > abstraction, to higher levels of complexity, and to greater numbers of > relationships and levels of relationship nesting. > > A programmer applies his knowledge of C to write a sorting algorithm > for integers using a cook book algorithm. > > A software engineer queries his architect, develops designs that match > the system architechture, can be maintained, are of good quality and > can be easily and effectively tested. And then he probably helps > program. > > An architect surveys his customers business area, looks at the current set > of problems to be solved, and the tasks that need doing, matches this > information against both mature and newer art to design a system that > can be used to solve immediate problems, streamline communications between > hitherto separate or even antagonistic sub-systems, provide business > level control and support, constrain, and assist in the adaption of that > system to unexpected events or changes. And then he probably helps do some > of the engineering and coding. > > A Computer scientist is capable of all of the above, including the > addition of questions of morality and societal impact, as well as > being able to produce new art to solve problems that have not yet become > part of existing business systems. > > Analogy: The architect is the guy standing at the top of the hill. He > surveys this hill, decides that the inhabitants of this hill are > wasting time and energy by growing to much food, and that this is occuring > because to much of this food is being wasted. > > He decides that what is needed is: a monetary system to make it easier to > track and control the flow of food, a communications system to allow the > inhabitants to organize the flow of food from places where it can be produced > to places where it cannot be, and a system of roads to do the actual > transportion of the food to different parts of the hill. > > One of the engineers gets the task of solving part of the transportation > problem by being asked to design the necesary bridge to get across a > particularly troublesome ravine. The architect tells the engineer > to make the bridge out of wood, a minimum of two lanes wide, and capable > of supporting up to x number of tons. > > The engineer decides what kind of bridge would be easiest/best to build > to cross this particular ravine: suspension, trestle, etc., and draws up > the specific plans taking into account good engineering practice (water > sealing the wood, designing a safety factor (x tons + 30%, for example) > adding on whatever state-of-the art traffic flow control options are > needed, and available, and putting up signs that specify the weight limit > of the bridge. > > The programmers are the guys carrying the planks, swinging hammers, drilling > holes and sawing wood. The keep a weather eye on each plank, making sure > that it has no flaws, is of good quality, and properly sealed. They also > make best effort to ensure that the holes drilled are correct in size and > placement, that the pieces are cut to best fit, etc. > > All the while this is going on, the Scientist is also standing on top of > the hill, but instead of looking down at the hill beneath his feet, he is > looking out over the sea that surrounds the island this hill sits on, > dreaming of ways (flying, anyone?) to get from this hill, to another hill > on the next island. > > Which is why arguing about which language is best is probably outside > the scope of most of our area of responsibility. Most of us here are > not architects, or even engineers. > > >I know Pascal, C, C++, COBOL, Fortran, Java, Basic and several variants of > >Assembler. None of them is difficult to learn. Each language has its > >strong and weak points. I happen to think that C++ is probably the most > >versatile language of the bunch, which is why I use it more than the others. > > Me, I think that combining languages gives you much more versatility. > > John S. -- ______________________________ | | | __________________________ | | |########################| | | |########################| | | |########################| | | |##### ######| | | |##### press ######| | | |##### any key ######| | | |##### ######| | | |########################| | | |########################| | | |########################| | | [] | |_____________ ____________| \_____|=+=|( _____ )|=+=|____/ ____________|_____|__________ _.-" -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "-._ ,"__ =-=-=-this is the any key-=-=-= __", |_ _________________________________ _| \___________________________________/ --------------2C06438E1EDAEBDA78A851A2 Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="vcard.vcf" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: Card for Thornton, William & Melissa Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="vcard.vcf" begin: vcard fn: William & Melissa Thornton n: Thornton;William & Melissa adr: 103A Paisley Court;;;Bozeman;Montana;59715-7321;USA email;internet: thornton@avicom.net tel;home: 406-586-9166 x-mozilla-cpt: ;0 x-mozilla-html: FALSE version: 2.1 end: vcard --------------2C06438E1EDAEBDA78A851A2--