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From: ags@pucc-i (Seaman)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: Selecting a Prog-Lang: Support for C
Message-ID: <279@pucc-i>
Date: Fri, 18-May-84 01:00:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: pucc-i.279
Posted: Fri May 18 01:00:35 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 19-May-84 00:43:28 EDT
References: <132@ihnet.UUCP> <2590@ncsu.UUCP> <278@pucc-i> <55@stat-l>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
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>  Dave, no one mentioned Modula-2 because it's still an experiment,
>  and, besides, the article was titled (see above) "...Support for C";

Then why did the article mention Pascal, Ada, FORTRAN and (*gasp*) COBOL?

Seriously, I recognize that this group is net.lang.c and not net.lang.mod2,
but as long as other people are comparing languages, it seems worthwhile
to have some good languages available for comparison.

Modula-2 combines the simplicity and readability of Pascal, the low-level 
facilities and expressive power of C, and the information-hiding, high-level
structuring and separate compilation capabilities of Ada in a single language.

I listened to Brian Kernighan's talk here in which he mentioned C++, the
new experimental version of C.  C++ looks like an attempt to add some of
Modula-2's features to C (primarily information hiding), but it lacks
Modula-2's built-in facilities for separating the "definition" and
"implementation" portions of a module and providing automatic version
control, both at compile time and at load time.  

There is a fundamental difference between "adding on" features to a language 
and designing them in from the beginning, a point which Wirth obviously 
appreciated when he abandoned Pascal and started over with Modula-2.  
Remember the programmer's axiom:  "Build one to throw away."
-- 

Dave Seaman
..!pur-ee!pucc-i:ags

"Against people who give vent to their loquacity 
by extraneous bombastic circumlocution."