Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!rodan.acs.syr.edu!isr
From: isr@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Michael S. Schechter - ISR group account)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: (pssst...fortran?)
Message-ID: <1990Sep12.231240.2922@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Date: 12 Sep 90 23:12:40 GMT
References: <1990Sep10.193130.20463@rodan.acs.syr.edu> <62688@lanl.gov>
Organization: Institute for Sensory Research
Lines: 35

In article <62688@lanl.gov> jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes:
>From article <1990Sep10.193130.20463@rodan.acs.syr.edu>, by isr@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Michael S. Schechter - ISR group account):
>To be sure, ther are _superficial_ similarities between Pascal and
>C.  But, there are superficial similarities between _any_two_ procedural
>languages you care to mention.
The programming that will be done will be _superficial_. No lists, No
pointers, no searching, no nothing except real-time control.
To the _novice_ user C and Pascal will appear similar, and the only
reason I'd want him to use C instead is only beacause everyone else
here already does.
>> will be able to port over minimal amounts of code from his
>> PDP-11, I can get him to use C on the mac. [...]
>Why do you want him to switch from a useful language to a lower level
>and harder to use one?

Because it will break my heart to see displays like
      M A I N   M E N U
      -----------------
               1)   Blah
               2)   Blah
               3)   Blah
        Enter your choice:
on the Macintosh. And while I haven't yet seen what the 
FORTRANS for it are like, with the way that everything is done
with handles and structures, I can see programming the user interface
being a nightmare if FORTRAN is used. 

>of the problems with Fortran are errors of omission - that is, Fortran
>lacks features which sooner or later (one hopes) will be added.  On the
>other hand, C suffers mostly from errors of commission - that is, C has
The features aren't there NOW. That's why I want him to use something
else, whether it's C or Pascal, isn't THAT important
--
Mike Schechter, Computer Engineer,Institute Sensory Research, Syracuse Univ.
InterNet: Mike_Schechter@isr.syr.edu isr@rodan.syr.edu Bitnet: SENSORY@SUNRISE