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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f5d71,d275ffeffdf83655 X-Google-Attributes: gidf5d71,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,d275ffeffdf83655 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 146b77,d275ffeffdf83655 X-Google-Attributes: gid146b77,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,d275ffeffdf83655 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public From: Lieven Marchand Subject: Re: Ada vs C++ vs Java Date: 1999/01/21 Message-ID: <787nso$nih$6@nickel.uunet.be>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 435287698 References: <369C1F31.AE5AF7EF@concentric.net> <369DDDC3.FDE09999@sea.ericsson.se> <369e309a.32671759@news.demon.co.uk> <77ledn$eu7$1@remarQ.com> <77pnqc$cgi$1@newnews.global.net.uk> <8p64spq5lo5.fsf@Eng.Sun.COM> <8p6vhi5mv34.fsf@Eng.Sun.COM> <8p6yan1xger.fsf@Eng.Sun.COM> <780so2$u83$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <36aa02d2.27999741@nntp.ix.netcom.com> Organization: Only under extreme pressure! Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c++,comp.vxworks,comp.lang.java Date: 1999-01-21T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: miker3@ix.netcom.com (Michael Rubenstein) writes: > On Tue, 19 Jan 1999 03:04:39 GMT, adam@irvine.com wrote: > > >So don't use them. > .... > >So don't use rendezvous. (I don't know anything about SR, but your > >fictional programmer never mentioned this; he was trying to argue for > >using C.) > .... > >So don't use tasks. > .... > >As for default values: So don't use them. > .... > >So don't use this feature. > > Theorem: All programming languages are simple. > > Proof: Mathematical induction. Consider a programming language with > 0 features; obviously such a language is simple. Suppose we have > proven that all languages with n features are simple. I claim that > all languages with n + 1 features are simple. Let L be a language > with n + 1 features. If L is simple, we are done. If L is not > simple, don't use one of its features. L is then equivalent to a > language with only n features and so is simple. > Not really. A useful measure of the simplicity of a language is rather whether what you don't know will hurt you or not. If you can ignore a feature, it doesn't need to be counted in the complexity; otherwise it does. When I first started studying Ada I found the fixed point types complex and I didn't see their utility. However, they can be ignored when you don't need them. In contrast, exceptions as a feature cannot be ignored since many operations in the language can potentially generate exceptions whether you want them to or not. Not that I find exceptions complex, especially compared to the mess they are in C++. -- Lieven Marchand ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Few people have a talent for constructive laziness. -- Lazarus Long