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From: dmocsny@minerva.che.uc.edu (Daniel Mocsny)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Language comparisons wanted: references and opinions
Summary: Pros and cons of common computer languages for technical software
Keywords: FORTRAN, C, Pascal, BASIC, etc.
Message-ID: <6639@uceng.UC.EDU>
Date: 5 Nov 90 18:54:14 GMT
Sender: news@uceng.UC.EDU
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Organization: University of Cincinnati, Cin'ti., OH
Lines: 22

Hello. 

When busy people select languages for solving technical problems, they 
consider several factors: features of the language, their familiarity 
with the language, compatibility with old code and/or libraries, 
recommendations of peers, price of compiler/environment, quality of
compiled (assembled) code, and so on.

I am interested in opinions, or pointers to published opinions, on
the relative merits of the popular programming languages. I.e., 
what types of problems does each language solve best, what practical
considerations govern language selection (i.e, why the "latest and
greatest" may not be the best choice), etc. My interest is primarily
in software useful to scientists and engineers, both user-written
software, and large commercial and/or public-domain packages.


--
Dan Mocsny				Snail:
Internet: dmocsny@minerva.che.uc.edu	Dept. of Chemical Engng. M.L. 171
	  dmocsny@uceng.uc.edu		University of Cincinnati
513/751-6824 (home) 513/556-2007 (lab)	Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0171