Re: License to Steal

[dvdeug@x8b4e53cd.dhcp.okstate.edu (David Starner)]

On Tue, 24 Apr 2001, Kent Paul Dolan <xanthian@well.com> wrote:
> Nothing has changed.  My last job at Fleet, I was
> handed an application suite written in 12 different
> programming languages, and, it being among the
> missing, added Ada 83 to the mix on my own.  Oh, in
> 1992 - 1994.

12 full programming languages, or are you counting stuff like
make and autoconf?
 
> * Attempt to choose tools with simple mental models,
>   to assure ease of programmer training.
> 
> Follow, for example, the Modula-2 model, _not_ the Ada
> model.
[...] 
> If someone gets called a language lawyer, or needs to
> be called as a language lawyer, in a discussion of how
> to make something work, then you flunked.  however
> good the intentions of the language designers, they've
> built something that won't grab mindshare.

Won't grab mindshare? Why do you say that? If you compare the
mindshare of Modula-2 to Ada, I think you'll find that Modula-2 is
almost dead, whereas Ada is one of the common 'minor' languages. I
can find as many free Algol-60 compilers as I can Modula-2
compilers, and I've never seen a library or program for or in
Modula-2 appear in Freshmeat or Debian (two major open source
repositories.) 

I haven't looked at Modula-2, but I've looked at (unextended,
Wirthian) Pascal and Oberon, two of Wirth's other languages. The
reason I don't use either of them is because I find the missing
features to be too annoying to deal with. Generics, enumerations,
bitwise operations, non-OO programming, etc. Ada provides me with
all the tools I need to get almost any job done that you'd call on
an Algol-class language to solve, usually in a way that I'm
comfortable working with. That's important to me, and considering 
the rush to C++ and Perl (other languages providing a full set of
tools for their fields at the cost of simplicty), I'd say that other
programmers find it important too.

-- 
David Starner - dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org
Pointless website: http://dvdeug.dhis.org
"I don't care if Bill personally has my name and reads my email and 
laughs at me. In fact, I'd be rather honored." - Joseph_Greg