Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsc!kca
From: kca@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (k.c.archie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.icon
Subject: Re: Why Icon?
Summary: icon uses
Message-ID: <2742@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>
Date: 28 Aug 89 16:22:30 GMT
References: <223000001@s.cs.uiuc.edu> <8908271943.AA28708@megaron.arizona.edu>
Distribution: inet
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 41

> What do you use Icon for and why? What don't you
> use Icon for and why? 
>    Ken Walker / Computer Science Dept / Univ of Arizona / Tucson, AZ 85721
>    +1 602 621 2858  kwalker@Arizona.EDU   {uunet|allegra|noao}!arizona!kwalker

We used Icon to prototype a new test management system we were developing
several years ago. Since we were experimenting with new testing techniques
we decided to experiment with new development techniques as well. One
of the team members was well versed in Icon and convinced us to try it.

This was a risk as very few people are familiar with Icon. If we
had gotten into schedule problems on a C project, we could
grab dozens of people out of the hallways here to help. Not so with
Icon. But, we found that Icon was simple to pick up, at least a working
knowledge. I found that I could read and modify Icon code even before I
had read the book.

The first release of the system was written largely in Icon and was (and is)
a great success. Nevertheless, we converted it entirely to C over the
first couple of years of its life. This was done for two reasons.
The most important was speed. Since the runtime system is an interpretor,
large Icon programs are rather slow. 

The second reason is that it is easier for new people coming into the 
project to read C code than Icon.
This appears to contradict what I said above about Icon being easy to learn.
That is true but most people here are already well versed in C and it is easier
not to have to teach them a new language.
But the major drawback was speed. If we had had an Icon compiler, we probably
would have left the system in Icon.

A small study indicated that converting Icon to C doubled the size of the
source code and doubled the execution speed.

I am convinced by this that Icon is an excellent language for trying out
ideas before casting them into stone. It could be used for production
code more easily if it had a compiler and if it had easier access to libraries
like curses.

**kent
Kent Archie att!iwtbv!kca