Re: Language design by by committee ( was Re: Try J# ( was Re: J# is there ))

[minyard@acm.org]

Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de> writes:

> Ted Dennison<dennison@telepath.com> writes:
> 
> >>Tony Hoare left because he thought the language was way too big.
> >>Later on he wrote a foreward to a book in which he recanted this
> >>view, and hope people would have the opportunity to use Ada (I
> >>think he said "this fine language", but I can't be sure).
> >
> > ..and compared to C++, Ada is fairly small. 
> 
> I'm not sure if this is true if you look at the language core only
> (and don't take into account any non-essential run-time library
> components, such as containers or valarrays).

It's true, especially if you include the language core.  Things like:

 * Number of operators
 * Number of reserved words
 * Size of the specification (Note: This particular item is from vague
   memory, but I think it's right).
 * Number of ways to shoot yourself in the foot :-).  Sorry, I couldn't
   resist.

It's probably true that the amount of C++ constructs that an average
C++ designer uses may be smaller than the amount of Ada constructs an
average Ada designer uses, but, to quote someone else, "most C++
designers program in 'C++--'".  (I think it was Bill Gates).

-Corey