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=0.2 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fc89c,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gidfc89c,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public From: seebs@solutions.solon.com (Peter Seebach) Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?] Date: 1996/08/11 Message-ID: <4uk63b$idu@solutions.solon.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 173497449 references: <31FBC584.4188@ivic.qc.ca> <01bb8534$b2718bc0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> <4ud81d$5ii@solutions.solon.com> <4ufbmd$2e0@falcon.ccs.uwo.ca> organization: Usenet Fact Police (Undercover) keywords: efficency optimization reply-to: seebs@solon.com newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-08-11T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <4ufbmd$2e0@falcon.ccs.uwo.ca>, J. Blustein wrote: > Can we say that we should be concerned with issues of effectiveness >instead of efficency? I know that, as programmers, we pursuing elegance >and that an important part of that is efficency, but it is not the most >important aspect. Finally, there are outside concerns such as deadlines. That's an interesting way of approaching it. Certainly, for any given real world task, a slow solution is likely to be better than none at all. One of the weaknesses of assembly is that it adapts poorly to sudden changes in requirements. Even the best written 80x86 assembly program will take a lot of porting effort to run on an Alpha - more than all but the worst C programs. In the end, you have to know what your requirements are, including long-term maintenance, speed, reliability, and due date. There will often be more than one way to meet them, but more often there will be no way at all to meet them all, and you must make sacrifices. -s -- Peter Seebach - seebs@solon.com - Copyright 1996 - http://www.solon.com/~seebs Unix/C Wizard - send mail for help, or send money for consulting! The *other* C FAQ, the hacker FAQ, et al. See web page above. Unsolicited email (junk mail and ads) is unwelcome, and will be billed for.