Re: status of Ada STL?

[18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ)]

Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com> wrote in message news:<3D11C9ED.4010709@telepath.com>...
> Russ wrote:
> > You have a lots of knifty tricks, don't you. By talking about
> 
> The truth is often inconvienent, isn't it?

Yes it is, as you are about to find out.

> > "software in use", you can pretend that dying languages are still
> > thriving. By the same trick, I suppose I could tell my boss that I
> 
> In what way is Cobol "dying"? Last I heard, there was more new Cobol 
> being written every year that there probabaly is Python code in existence.

Interesting. I did a little web search, and I discovered, to my
amazement, that Cobol is indeed still thriving. You were right about
that. But I also did a little check on Cobol syntax, and I found that
it actually uses "=" for assignment (in its "COMPUTE" statement). So
thanks for solidifying my argument. You're wrong on the main point
even though you're right on a subordinate point.

Let's see, what are the most widely used languages today? How about
Cobol, C, C++, Java, Fortran, Perl, and Ada. And lo and behold, every
one of them except Ada uses "=" for assignment (come to think of it,
doesn't BASIC use "=" too?).

Somebody ought to do a study. It seems that you can almost predict the
popularity of a language based on whether or not it uses "=" for
assignment. It seems that all the major languages use "=", and all the
minor languages use something else.

Consider the four major scripting languages: Basic, Perl, Python, and
Tcl/Tk. I haven't checked on Basic, but I think it uses "=" for
assignment, as do Perl and Python. They are all wildly popular, with
Python growing radidly. Tcl was once consider a rising star, but now
it seems to be fading away (though it still has a devoted group of
core users). I personally happen to be a good Tcl programmer and I
think it is the best language around for straight GUIs, so I am
certainly not biased against it. But guess what? Tcl does not use "="
for assignment, and it is dwindling in popularity. Coincidence? You
decide.