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From: ark@alice.att.com (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: programming quality vs. language
Message-ID: <20176@alice.att.com>
Date: 7 Apr 91 17:34:56 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Liberty Corner NJ
Lines: 19

All other things being equal, I would expect the average quality
of programs written in a language to increase along with the
price of a typical compiler for that language.

Consider: someone who wants to learn to program and doesn't even
know enough to have an opinion about what language to use will probably
start with a bias toward langauges for which cheap compilers are
available.

On the other end of the spectrum, languages for which the only available
compilers are very expensive will probably be used mostly by people
whose employers have paid for said compilers.

In other words: cheap compilers are used by random hackers, expensive
ones by professionals.  I would expect this to be true regardless
of the merits of the languages themselves.
-- 
				--Andrew Koenig
				  ark@europa.att.com