From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_40 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 15 Apr 92 04:33:04 GMT From: cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!nstar!towers!grafted !dappel@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Dave Appel) Subject: Re: Open comment to Ted Holden Message-ID: List-Id: news@fedfil.UUCP (news) writes: > Several points: The commercial software venders are now adhering > to standards, the most serious from the perspective of languages > being C/C++. The argument you give would pertain in a situation > in which Borland, MicroSoft, Ashton-Tate et. al. were each hawking > their very own language. The reality is quite different. The choice > is between the standard North American programming language (C/C++) > which everybody uses and which is well understood by most serious > programmers, and the flakey piece of garbage known as Ada. > > The problems mentioned in that large post of mine are real enough. Some > very bright people have been wasting their lives spending 12 hours working > around Ada and one hour solving their own problem (to the extent > possible WITH Ada).. > > Virtually all really vital and serious military work is still being > done in C and other languages with waivers. There's a real reason > for that. > > Ted Holden > -- > HTE > bear I hate to burst your bubble Ted, but "everbody" doesn't use C/C++. Most business systems (counting systems or packages, not installations) are written in COBOL. There is still more lines of COBOL "in production" than any other language in the business environment. Most scientific stuff is still in Fortran. I did a survey in comp.sys.super and by FAR the largest amount of production code and by FAR the largest amount of development is in Fortran when dealing with supercomputers. I talked to people involved in NCSA and they say Fortran is by far and away the language of choice on supers. Also, there is no "Standard C". Ansi C and K&R C are *NOT* "standards" that are adhered to. Talk to the people at Aldus corporation, the people who wrote PageMaker. They have PageMaker on the Mac and PageMaker on the PC. Only about 80% of the code is identical between the two systems. Graphic handling and system calls are still too different. I went over this "C is not C all around the world" with a friend of mine when we discussed writing a business program in C. I wanted a C program that was portable to mini-computers and workstations. He wanted to write it in Borland C with Borland's user interface package. I can think of 3 completely different versions of the package: 1) character based version for minicomputer users running dumb terminals 2) X-windows based version for workstations 3) PC-based version with Brand-X user interace package. -- Dave Appel The Grafted Branch BBS 317-881-4369 internet: dappel@grafted.UUCP uucp: ..!uunet!grafted.UUCP!dappel = = Grafted Branch BBS (317) 889-6997 2 Gig on-line = =