Re: Inheritance versus Generics

[bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff)]

In article <336596D9.2781E494@eiffel.com>,
Bertrand Meyer  <bertrand@eiffel.com> wrote:
>Large-scale practical experience with a language cannot hurt, of
>course, but (posited) lack thereof does not disqualify one from
>talking about the language. 

I tend to agree with Bertrand Meyer here.  I mean, I've criticized some
aspects of Eiffel without having written a line of code in Eiffel (well,
at least not something serious).  But I've at least read the language
definition carefully.

Perhaps Robert Dewar is (over)reacting to those who criticize Ada
without knowing the first thing about it.  I don't think Meyer is one of
those.

I can read a language definition (carefully), and feel some confidence
in criticizing it, despite the fact that I haven't invested several
years of my life programming in it.  Otherwise, how can we make progress
in language design?  There are thousands of languages out there -- the
best we can expect from language designers is to be familiar with them
by reading -- not direct experience.  Of course, there are those who
believe Ada or Eiffel or whatever to be the ultimate -- but they're
wrong; there's a lot of progress still to be made in this field.

>Thanks, by the way, for the nice comments about the book.

I liked your book, too.  :-)

- Bob