Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!hplabs!hplabsz!sartin
From: sartin@hplabsz.HP.COM (Rob Sartin)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: the scientist and the engineer
Message-ID: <6518@hplabsz.HP.COM>
Date: 29 Jan 91 03:06:28 GMT
References: <1991Jan26.210023.28534@cbnewsh.att.com> <1991Jan27.234614.2327@cbnewsc.att.com> <1991Jan28.125444.71@skyler.mavd.honeywell.com>
Reply-To: sartin@cup.hp.com (Rob Sartin)
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Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Open Systems Software Division
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In article <1991Jan28.125444.71@skyler.mavd.honeywell.com> djbailey@skyler.mavd.honeywell.com writes:
>No. Custom metallurgy would mean designing a new programming language 
>from scratch and that is rare.

Not as rare as one might hope.  I've been on and observed a number of
projects that used custom programming languages* (usually preprocessors
to another language).

My observaton is that software folks often get more carried away with
the pure technology rather than focusing on solving the problem.

Rob