Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!emory!hubcap!rbe From: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky) Newsgroups: comp.parallel Subject: Re: Ease of programming versus efficiency Message-ID: <13122@hubcap.clemson.edu> Date: 14 Feb 91 14:14:33 GMT References: <13066@hubcap.clemson.edu> Sender: fpst@hubcap.clemson.edu Reply-To: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky) Organization: I P Sharp Associates, Toronto Lines: 16 Approved: parallel@hubcap.clemson.edu The flaw in your reasoning is that you make the assumption that you cannot have programs which are both efficient AND maintainable. If you are writing in stone-age languages such as Fortran, even Fortran 8x,90,9x (pick your value of x), then your assumption is correct: The language is too crude and primitive to meet both needs. What IS needed is a language (or languages) which reflect the way we think: Languages which are concise, which have few rules, and which have simple rules. Once applicative languages such as J have efficient compilers developed for them, they might be able to be the cake you can have and eat. Bob Bernecky Snake Island Research Inc.