Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ames!vsi1!ubvax!igor!rutabaga!jls From: jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) Newsgroups: comp.object Subject: Re: Documenting OO Systems Message-ID: Date: 21 Mar 91 20:55:28 GMT References: <9103070342.AA07462@.nextserver.cs.stthomas.edu.cs.stthomas.edu ..> <1114@tetrauk.UUCP> <271@orbit.gtephx.UUCP> Sender: news@Rational.COM Lines: 28 >> Ever tried Eiffel ? >_or_ Ada >(as opposed to "|| C++" :-) No shit! Most C++ is indistinguishable from line noise. Ada, properly written, looks like an English language description of the processing being performed, with the added advantage that it also executes. (There is no need for pseudo-code, or even much need for comments.) As I continually remind my students, programs are written by people for other PEOPLE, not for computers. It is the job of the COMPILER to translate a human-readable program into a machine-executable program. C hackers for some perverse reason want to eliminate the middleman and write programs for the computer directly, resulting in unreadable, incomprehensible, unmaintainable code. I used to work in a C shop and many times observed programmers floundering around trying to understand code they THEMSELVES had written just a few weeks earlier. Techno-weenies may see nothing wrong with this, but any manager with the ability to do simple sums should be able to conclude that he's pissing money down a rathole letting a process like this exist. -- ***** DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are my own. Duh. Like you'd ever be able to find a company (or, for that matter, very many people) with opinions like mine. -- "When I want your opinion, I'll read it in your entrails."