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From: lagache@picsou.inria.fr (Edouard Lagache)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.prolog
Subject: Standards, committees, and realities (Re: Prolog standard)
Message-ID: <8265@mirsa.inria.fr>
Date: 29 Jun 90 11:31:20 GMT
References: <15581@dime.cs.umass.edu> <3314@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> <1385@quintus.UUCP> <3319@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> <1389@quintus.UUCP>
Sender: news@mirsa.inria.fr
Reply-To: lagache@picsou.inria.fr (Edouard Lagache)
Organization: INRIA Sophia-Antipolis, labo SIDE
Lines: 33

> 
> >What's needed is
> >a committee who are vehemently interested in doing a high-quality job.
> 
> You should start attending the meetings.

It is worth noting that the most successful languages were not
developed by a committee.  For example: BASIC, "C", "C++", Pascal,
PROLOG . . . .

Even languages like LISP and FORTRAN didn't get their start in
committees.

We are still waiting for a FORTRAN-88, I don't know if the "C"
standard is finally out or not, I do know people were programming in
ANSI-C long before the standard, primarily because I suspect so much
was borrowed from C++ (which was well defined).

I was forced to abandon work partially because it was in this weird
language called PROLOG that people didn't know anything about.

I don't know what is going on in the PROLOG standard meetings.  I do
know that 2 years ago when I abandoned PROLOG, people were talking
about a standard.  How many more people will have to abandon PROLOG
before this fabled standard comes to supposedly save the day?

Sorry if this a little bitter.  That is just the way I feel these days.

Edouard Lagache
INRIA, Sophia Antipolis - FRANCE (for the summer).

P.S.  Since these days I find myself trying to hack Motif and C++,
      this obviously does not represent the views of INRIA or my group.