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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fac41,9a0ff0bffdf63657 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,9a0ff0bffdf63657 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,4b06f8f15f01a568 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,9a0ff0bffdf63657 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public From: jdege@jdege.visi.com (Jeffrey C. Dege) Subject: Re: Why C++ is successful Date: 1998/08/08 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 379160660 References: <6qfhri$gs7$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <35cb8058.645630787@news.ne.mediaone.net> NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 08 Aug 1998 09:49:39 CDT Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel,comp.object,comp.software-eng,comp.lang.ada Date: 1998-08-08T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: On 8 Aug 1998 08:27:02 -0400, Robert Dewar wrote: > >Undoubtedly at least *part* of the problem in using C is that people are not >sufficiently aware of what can go wrong. Microsoft has a rather amazing >book that pretends to be a book about software techniques, but in fact is >little more than a set of perfectly standard coding procedures to avoid >pitfalls in C. When I read it, I was surprised that professional C >programmers would find such a book useful, but the questions above are >a reminder that you often people are not aware of the dangers. If you're talking about Steve McGuire's books, (Code Complete, Writing Solid Code), I'm a professional C programmer, and I didn't find anything in them that I hadn't been aware of for many years. >I must >say I worry about CS curriculums in which people are only getting exposed >to C and C++ and hence simply don't register important language design >principles (after all the idea that it is obviously a bad idea to allow >pointers to local variables is a very old one, dating back at least to >Pascal, which means coming up to 30 years. I have to agree with the above. A CS curriculumn should have some breadth to it. Exposure to a variety of languages is a part of this, as is instruction in the theory underlying compilers. -- The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" ("I found it!") but rather "hmm....that's funny..." -- Isaac Asimov