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From: edw@ius1.cs.cmu.edu (Eddie Wyatt)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: \"C\" vrs ADA
Message-ID: <1038@ius1.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 25-Aug-87 21:16:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: ius1.1038
Posted: Tue Aug 25 21:16:34 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Aug-87 09:06:13 EDT
References: <8948@brl-adm.ARPA> <713@elmgate.UUCP>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 51
Keywords: freedom opinion c ada $##@%^$#%^$!!


  It's niece to be back from vacation.....now back to some bashing :-)
  

  This stuff really doesn't belong in comp.lang.c it should be comp.lang.misc
or something like that but ......

In article <713@elmgate.UUCP>, ram@elmgate.UUCP (Randy Martens) writes:
> 
> For doing serious programming, the ONLY language is "C".  I have NEVER seen
> an application written in another language that would not have been better/
> faster/more flexible/more useful if re-written in "C".  This includes ADA and
> COBOL (retch!!).  I proved this to a previous employers by redoing a DBMS
> update program in "C", where before it had been in COBOL.

   I like to see you write a symbolic differentiation program in C.  I
can write that program in 20 lines or less in lisp.

   I think you've missed a very important aspect about programming in
different languages.  The languages we choose to program in, shape the
way we think about a solution to a problem.  They also affect the style
and methodology we use.

  An example...  Many people abbuse pointers in C.  The classic fast 
4 (sizeof(int)) byte copy code.

		* (int *) x = * (int *) y;

This is not portable. It should be coded as:

		x[0] = y[0];
		x[1] = y[1];
		x[2] = y[2];
		x[3] = y[3];

IF portability is an issue - it might not be.

  A language like Pascal will not allow the first construct.  There are many
other examples where C allows one to write code that is machine specific,
that one could not write in a language like Pascal.  Does this make Pascal
a better language then C?  Some people would say yes, I would say no but then
again thats another story. ;-)

  Is this a good enough example of how a language can effect the way think
about a solution to a problem?

-- 

					Eddie Wyatt

e-mail: edw@ius1.cs.cmu.edu