Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!rochester!ur-tut!sunybcs!boulder!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!ihlpe!daryl
From: daryl@ihlpe.ATT.COM (Daryl Monge)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: The development tools (was: Configuration Management)
Message-ID: <2673@ihlpe.ATT.COM>
Date: 23 Feb 88 03:57:50 GMT
References: <497@aimt.UUCP> <5257@well.UUCP> <2984@metavax.UUCP> <1252@eneevax.UUCP>
Organization: Engineering Design Process Department, AT&T Bell Labs
Lines: 35
Summary: true, but...

In article <1252@eneevax.UUCP>, noise@eneevax.UUCP (Johnson Noise) writes:
> In article <2984@metavax.UUCP> chris@metavax.UUCP (Chris Collins) writes:
> >... Words about the UNIX linker operation...
> >It seems to me that if Unix is _the_ system for programmers, as it has
> >been described to me several times, why does this idiocy exist?
> 	BTW Unix is THE system, for programmers or otherwise, it does
> have one obvious drawback: it assumes the user is competent.

This gets to me every time I see it posted.  UNIX is the best development
environment IN TOTAL that I have used, but
	IT IS NOT PERFECT.
	IT CAN BE IMPROVED.
The above smacks as a "If you don't like it, you must be a bozo" message.

The UNIX linker leaves much to be desired.  And consider the C compiler.
Leave off a semicolon and the parser goes nuts.  Does this mean I would go
back to VMS where a decent compiler and linker exists?  Of course not.

Lets see more discussion on things to be IMPROVED.
	- Better syntax directed editing (>emacs has now)
	- Improved syntactic and semantic compiler recovery
	- Use of object oriented languages (C++ !)
	- object oriented data bases for those object oriented languages.
	- More powerful compiler compilers
	- Better debugging
	- Automation of regression testing
	- Conversion of specification into code.

But please, when someone writes "this does not do what I want or expect",
don't reply "Its UNIX, love it or lump it".  Lets improve it!  Or at least
discuss the relative merits of possible methods of operation.

Daryl Monge				UUCP:	...!ihnp4!ihcae!daryl
AT&T					CIS:	72717,65
Bell Labs, Naperville, Ill		AT&T	312-979-3603