Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!igor!rutabaga!jls From: jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) Newsgroups: comp.object Subject: Re: Documenting OO Systems Message-ID: Date: 3 Apr 91 20:04:55 GMT References: <20106@alice.att.com> <1991Mar26.191259.14470@i88.isc.com> <27F4D4BE.716@tct.uucp> <1991Apr2.175756.12586@visix.com> Sender: news@Rational.COM Lines: 21 >So, are you implying that the only people using C are incompetent? Nope. What I AM saying is that a large percentage of those writing in C are lousy software engineers, if the quality of the C code I've seen over the years is representative of their output--and I'm also saying that I attribute this to the culture that grew up around C, not to the language itself (since the language is largely a value-neutral tool). Furthermore, I'm saying that there are plenty of incompetent C++ and Ada programmers running around loose too, but that the percentage of them relative to the percentage of competent software engineers working in those languages is less than the same comparison in C, FORTRAN, or other dinosaur languages--and I'm saying that this difference is attributable to the software engineering oriented cultures that have grown up around Ada and C++ (and that were, in fact, responsible for their creation in the first place), Finally, I'm saying that, should one be inclined to be a software engineer, one would in general find Ada or C++ to be superior vehicles for expressing one's designs. -- ***** 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.