Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!daver!tscs!tct!chip
From: chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sw.components
Subject: Re: nature of C++ components
Message-ID: <27C3144C.5B15@tct.uucp>
Date: 21 Feb 91 00:28:59 GMT
References: <1991Feb16.121825.15353@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <27BFDF44.3EA6@tct.uucp> <1991Feb19.053101.6472@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Organization: Teltronics/TCT, Sarasota, FL
Lines: 19

According to craig@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Craig Hubley):
>I think of it like architecture, which is at once an art and the nitty-
>grittiest of crafts... Half your work is catching imagination on paper 
>and the other half is sticking your hand in the dirt, sniffing the air
>and pounding the soil.

Architecture is an excellent analogy, in my opinion.

>... building is not like mass production, either ...

Quite true.  Prefab available, but the best work involves lots of
custom design and imagination.

>Assertions, however, only really extend the safety of the type system
>somewhat.

And I think that's all we'll ever get out of our compilers until we
finally manage to incomporate AI into our compilers.  But then, who
will need to program?  :-)


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