Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!spool.mu.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!caen!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!ucivax!orion.oac.uci.edu!cerritos.edu!arizona.edu!arizona!dave From: dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave P. Schaumann) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Source File Organization Message-ID: <984@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> Date: 1 Mar 91 21:20:56 GMT References: <1991Feb26.045242.23453@rfengr.com> <4836@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> <4070@bnr-rsc.UUCP> <1991Mar1.143534.50@m.cs.uiuc.edu> Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson Lines: 47 In article <1991Mar1.143534.50@m.cs.uiuc.edu> marick@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Brian Marick) writes: >jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) writes: >>Again, in Ada this is handled by the predefined attribute 'IMAGE. Considering >>the range of kludgy/complex "solutions" posted here to what is a non-issue >>in Ada, it never ceases to amaze me how violently C hackers cling to that >>damned language. > >Let's not get bogged down in this month's C vs. Ada flame war. Hear, hear. >[some good points deleted] I'd like to point out some points more specific to language choice. There are (at least) three interconnected issues in designing and implementing any language: speed, safety, and expressability. You can have any two of these, but only at the cost of the third. For instance, C has speed and expressability at the cost of safety. Ada chose expressability over the others. Some other examples: assembly language is the ultimate example of speed over expressability and safety. At the other end of the spectrum, we have BASIC, which has safety over speed and expressability. Also note that the point that a language finds itself in safety/speed/express- ability is determined by the skill of the compiler/interpreter writer, the state of compiler/language theory at the moment, as well as the particular implementation hardeware. Every language has a different trade-off of these three issues. Ideally, language choice would simply be a matter of specifying how important these three are, and then choosing the best match available (or perhaps implementing a new language more suited to your needs). Unfortunately, this is not the case. Language choice is based on the history of the environment and the temperment and experience of the programmer. However, this does lend to an explination of why (in the general case), no language is really better than another. It all really depends on the problem at hand (and to an unfortunate extent the programmer at hand). -- Dave Schaumann dave@cs.arizona.edu 'Dog Gang'! Where do they get off calling us the 'Dog Gang'? I'm beginning to think the party's over. I'm beginning to think maybe we don't need a dog. Or maybe we need a *new* dog. Or maybe we need a *cat*! - Amazing Stories