Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!umich!itivax!scs
From: scs@itivax.UUCP (Steve C. Simmons)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Standards For C++
Keywords: standards growthrate
Message-ID: <255@itivax.UUCP>
Date: 17 Sep 88 18:51:14 GMT
Reply-To: scs@itivax.UUCP (Steve C. Simmons)
Distribution: na
Organization: Industrial Technology Institute, Ann Arbor
Lines: 46

From the first "release" of C outside of Bell Labs to the
first commercial C compiler was years.  From the first release
of C++ to the first commercial compiler was a much shorter
period.

C++ is going through a much faster "public acceptance" path
than C did.  In fact, it's faster than any language I can
think of except maybe pascal.

One of the major problems with Pascal was dialectization (sp?).
Everybody had their own features to make up for lacks (whether
real or perceived) and everybody did it differently.  This lone
fact probably did more to stunt Pascal as a portable language
than anything else.

The same process has already started with C++.  There are ads
for C++ compilers (well, one) with parameterized types, a feature
not (yet) in cfront or g++.  Zortech is apparently selling like
crazy.  Library packages are springing up all over the place,
each with it's own set of compiler dependancies.

We need to start thinking seriously about standardization.  "But
the language isn't complete" you cry?  True, but only to a limited
degree.  "But it'll stifle innovation" you say?  What's more
important, innovation or code reusability?  [[hey, cool down.  i'm
kicking straw men here.]]

C managed to live for so long without a standard because there
was a de-facto one in K&R.  This is not true of C++ *because* of
Stroustrup -- he's being very flexible.

It's time to start talking about a standards effort.  Starting
the discussion today means it will be one to two years before
we have a real committee, and one to two years before we have a
standard.  Figure three years from now *at best*.  Starting today
is not too soon; starting today will not unreasonably stifle
the innovation that is under way and will wrap up in the next
two years.

I will now go and don my asbestos suit!  :-)


-- 
Steve Simmons		...!umix!itivax!vax3!scs
Industrial Technology Institute, Ann Arbor, MI.
"You can't get here from here."