From: "Chad R. Meiners" <crmeiners@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Bye-bye Ada ?
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 19:19:49 -0500
Date: 2003-02-03T19:19:49-05:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <b1n13k$13gf$1@msunews.cl.msu.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 1044294578.391198@master.nyc.kbcfp.com
"Hyman Rosen" <hyrosen@mail.com> wrote in message
news:1044294578.391198@master.nyc.kbcfp.com...
> Warren W. Gay VE3WWG wrote:
> > I should resist the temptation but... the same argument can be
> > made for perl, FORTRAN and assembly language programming ;-)
>
> And correctly so. "It is a poof craftsman who blames his tools."
Interesting take on a classic statement, but unfortunately a poor one since
correct tool choice has real ramifications. Let's take a simple example. I
needed to build a 4'x2'x4' mew for my wife. Now I am not a great carpenter,
but the few pieces I do make are functional. Unfortunately, the only tools
I had at the moment were silversmithing tools and a screwdriver. I
constructed the mew with a jeweler's saw, a spring drill, a screwdriver, a
pencil, and an understanding of geometry to get the proportions right.
Unfortunately it took an entire day to build. If I would have had a saw
horse, a backsaw, a power screwdriver/drill, and a tape measure, I would
have completed the job in about an hour. So as you can see the problem was
inappropriate tools for the job. Am I blaming the tools? Yes and no since
I have identified the tools as the source of the problem, but I have also
acknowledge that the tools were not appropriate for the job at hand.
> I wish he was still around here, because I think Robert Dewar is
> a prime exemplar of this philosophy, having written a fine COBOL
> compiler in COBOL, just for example. And as he also said, writing
> in assembly language, along with a data structure designed to take
> advantage of the particulars of the instruction set, gives you a
> program which can run rings around anything you can do in a higher
> level language.
I believe Dr. Dewar is a proponent of "the right tool" philosophy.
Silversmithing tools are great when you want to make rings, necklaces, and
forks. ;)
-CRM
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2003-02-04 0:19 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 84+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2003-01-31 16:19 Bye-bye Ada ? Wes Groleau
2003-01-31 17:22 ` chris.danx
2003-01-31 19:00 ` Wes Groleau
2003-02-01 14:29 ` Marin David Condic
2003-02-02 22:24 ` chris.danx
2003-02-03 13:20 ` Marin David Condic
2003-02-03 17:26 ` Richard Riehle
2003-02-04 13:22 ` Marin David Condic
2003-02-06 4:23 ` Richard Riehle
2003-02-06 13:03 ` Marin David Condic
2003-02-07 9:27 ` Ole-Hjalmar Kristensen
2003-02-07 12:37 ` Marin David Condic
2003-02-07 0:28 ` P S Norby
2003-02-07 3:33 ` Richard Riehle
2003-02-08 5:51 ` AG
2003-02-04 16:25 ` Robert C. Leif
2003-02-01 17:40 ` Alfred Hilscher
2003-02-01 18:51 ` Larry Kilgallen
2003-02-02 14:11 ` Alfred Hilscher
2003-02-01 19:54 ` Jan-Uwe Finck
2003-02-02 15:19 ` Steffen Huber
2003-02-02 15:17 ` Steffen Huber
2003-02-03 17:05 ` Alfred Hilscher
2003-02-03 17:48 ` Steffen Huber
2003-01-31 17:58 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-01-31 22:13 ` Preben Randhol
2003-02-01 23:25 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-01 14:34 ` Marin David Condic
2003-01-31 20:52 ` David Marceau
2003-02-01 7:16 ` John R. Strohm
2003-02-01 19:25 ` David Marceau
2003-02-01 20:13 ` Ada job opportunity posted at THALES in Ottawa Citizen Today David Marceau
2003-02-01 20:16 ` Bye-bye Ada ? Vinzent Hoefler
2003-01-31 22:17 ` Preben Randhol
2003-02-01 7:48 ` Richard Riehle
2003-02-01 23:31 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-03 17:25 ` Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
2003-02-03 17:49 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-04 0:19 ` Chad R. Meiners [this message]
2003-02-04 16:32 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-04 17:59 ` Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
2003-02-04 16:30 ` Frank J. Lhota
2003-02-04 16:41 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-04 16:54 ` Kevin Cline
2003-02-04 18:00 ` Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
2003-02-05 7:12 ` Karel Miklav
2003-02-05 5:26 ` Richard Riehle
2003-02-05 15:07 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-06 18:14 ` Bye-bye Ada ? (Ada95 Wholesale Changes?) Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
2003-02-06 18:51 ` Robert Spooner
2003-02-06 23:00 ` Jerry Petrey
2003-02-07 1:21 ` Jeffrey Carter
2003-02-07 3:53 ` Richard Riehle
2003-02-07 4:35 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-07 18:25 ` Richard Riehle
2003-02-08 5:51 ` Kevin Cline
2003-02-08 6:49 ` Richard Riehle
2003-02-09 11:47 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-10 5:20 ` Richard Riehle
2003-02-10 6:21 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-16 21:09 ` Richard Riehle
2003-02-20 3:53 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-12 19:04 ` Martin Krischik
2003-02-13 17:27 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-15 11:56 ` Martin Krischik
2003-02-20 4:08 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-23 13:37 ` Martin Krischik
2003-02-24 17:00 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-26 19:57 ` Martin Krischik
2003-02-15 15:43 ` Martin Krischik
2003-02-20 4:03 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-02-07 6:28 ` K
2003-02-07 6:58 ` Vinzent Hoefler
2003-02-07 7:17 ` K
2003-02-07 8:57 ` Ole-Hjalmar Kristensen
2003-02-07 9:22 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2003-02-01 14:24 ` Bye-bye Ada ? Marin David Condic
2003-02-02 9:51 ` Anders Wirzenius
2003-02-04 19:26 ` Jacob Sparre Andersen
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2003-01-31 16:29 Beard, Frank Randolph CIV
2003-02-03 7:05 Grein, Christoph
2003-02-03 9:26 ` Preben Randhol
2003-02-04 12:03 Rick Morneau
2003-02-05 13:02 Rick Morneau
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