Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!necntc!ima!johnl From: johnl@ima.ISC.COM (John R. Levine) Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: What makes a language popular? Message-ID: <644@ima.ISC.COM> Date: Thu, 6-Aug-87 08:23:09 EDT Article-I.D.: ima.644 Posted: Thu Aug 6 08:23:09 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 13-Aug-87 02:41:15 EDT References: <331@hubcap.UUCP> <627@ima.ISC.COM> <638@ima.ISC.COM> Reply-To: Duncan C White Organization: Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK. Lines: 55 Approved: compilers@ima.UUCP In article <638@ima.ISC.COM> harvard!rutgers!petsd!cjh writes: >In article <632@ima.ISC.COM> this comment appeared: >>Pascal: The universally recognized standard reference is Jensen and Wirth. > >Since 1981, there has been an ANSI standard for Pascal ... > >There is also an ISO standard, which is similart to the ANSI standard >but goes beyond it in one direction: "conformant arrays," which allow >the programmer to write a subprogram what will take arrays of a given >element type and varying size. This is a valuable feature, already >present in FORTRAN and other languages. Very true.. and this is a nice feature.. but may I ask a rhetorical question ? [ well, actually, even that is a rhetorical question, 'cos I'm going to... :-) ] How many people, when asked a question about PASCAL's syntax, will say "hang on while I get out my copy of the ISO standard"... and how many will reach for their Jensen and Wirth ? Similarly, with C, K&R is still the universal 'C bible', despite various de-facto changes [addition of void?] and the proposed ANSI standard. Many people suggest that Harbison & Steele should replace K&R now... I haven't read it - I will as soon as I get around to it - but I somehow doubt if it will ever fully replace K&R. My point is that when a Standards Organization grabs a language by the scruff of its neck, shakes it about a bit [usually improving it] and then dignifies the new version with the title "standard", all the old versions don't magically go away, and there will be considerable inertia among [the many] users who possess older reference manuals. -- JANET address : dcw@uk.ac.ic.doc| Snail Mail : Duncan White, --------------------------------| Dept of Computing, The nice thing about | Imperial College, standards is that there are | 180 Queen's Gate, so many to choose from... | South Kensington, -- Andrew S. Tanenbaum | London SW7 Tel: UK 01-589-5111 x 4982/4991 [Seems to me that the compiler writers' choice of standards is far more important than that of the users. In the particular case of C, the emerging ANSI standard enjoys wide support and various vendors are falling over themselves to demonstrate how conformant they are. I'm not so sure about Pascal, particularly since the Pascal crowd seems to pay much less attention to interfacing with the enclosing environment. -John] -- Send compilers articles to ima!compilers or, in a pinch, to Levine@YALE.ARPA Plausible paths are { ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale | cca}!ima Please send responses to the originator of the message -- I cannot forward mail accidentally sent back to compilers. Meta-mail to ima!compilers-request -- John R. Levine, Cambridge MA, +1 617 492 3869 { ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something The Iran-Contra affair: None of this would have happened if Ronald Reagan were still alive.