Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!igor!rutabaga!jls From: jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) Newsgroups: comp.object Subject: Re: Documenting OO Systems Message-ID: Date: 2 Apr 91 20:18:29 GMT References: <1991Mar26.191259.14470@i88.isc.com> <4693@osc.COM> <27F4D3F3.6CD@tct.uucp> <1991Apr1.175344.3317@visix.com> Sender: news@Rational.COM Lines: 35 >Showing that you can write garbage in C doesn't mean >you can't write poetry in it too. Never said you couldn't. Please allow me to restate my thesis: 1) You can write terrible code in any language. 2) Some languages have an edge in the readability department even when one writes the same stuff in both and compares (more about this later). 3) A language does not exist separate from its culture. 4) The culture that grew up around C is hackerish, undisciplined, and darned proud of it (for reasons I've never understood). 5) The culture that grew up around Ada is software engineering oriented. 6) The smart money bet is that code written in Ada will be cleaner than code written in C. One can of course find numerous counterexamples, but I'm talking gross percentages here. 7) C++ provides an opportunity to reboot the C/UNIX culture with a more disciplined, software engineering approach to things. The jury is still out on whether this will actually occur or not. P.S. Please submit some C poetry--I'm about to submit what I hope is some Ada poetry (it may turn out to be Ada doggerel, but oh well), and this will provide a comparison of good against good rather than good against bad. I'm shooting for readability and a self-documenting result, so you might try to also. -- ***** DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are my own, except in the realm of software engineering, in which case I've borrowed them from incredibly smart people.