From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FROM_NUMERIC_TLD, INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 101b33,d275ffeffdf83655 X-Google-Attributes: gid101b33,public X-Google-Thread: 146b77,d275ffeffdf83655 X-Google-Attributes: gid146b77,public X-Google-Thread: f5d71,d275ffeffdf83655 X-Google-Attributes: gidf5d71,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,d275ffeffdf83655 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,d275ffeffdf83655 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: 10a146,bab58563a24f525a X-Google-Attributes: gid10a146,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,d275ffeffdf83655 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public From: nobody@0.0 (Peter) Subject: Re: Ada vs C++ vs Java Date: 1999/01/13 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 432295622 References: <369C1F31.AE5AF7EF@concentric.net> Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c++,comp.vxworks,comp.lang.java,comp.java.advocacy,comp.object,comp.lang.java.programmer Date: 1999-01-13T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article , "Erik Funkenbusch" wrote: > >- lead to easily maintainable code > > No language will do that. It's a function of design. It is a function of the programming language though. To take an extreme example, most programmers don't find programs written in machine language to be particularly maintainable for large projects compared to programs written high-level programming languages. But even comparing high-level programming languages there is much differences in the level of maintainability of programs written in the programming languages. In some languages, pointer errors, memory management, etc. are not even a possibility. This makes it easier for a person who did not write the code to go in and modify the program because there are less hidden assumptions that they have to be aware of. > > >- promote safe programming techniques > > Be aware that "safe" often means "confining". You may not be able to do the > things you need to do in a language that doesn't support pointers Safe often means unconfining too. For example, having references instead of pointers is unconfining because you don't have to worry about pointer errors (one of the leading cause of errors in C and C++ programs) corrupting the state of your program. You shouldn't equate lack pointers in a language with limitations in Java's functionality. Other languages without pointers are very powerful.