Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!dalsqnt!pollux!ti-csl!pf@csc.ti.com
From: pf@csc.ti.com (Paul Fuqua)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: What's a PC? (What's the best environment)
Message-ID: <62959@ti-csl.CSNET>
Date: 8 Nov 88 00:05:12 GMT
References: <5182@louie.udel.EDU>
Sender: news@ti-csl.CSNET
Organization: TI Computer Science Center, Dallas
Lines: 43


    Date: Thursday, November 3, 1988  2:57pm (CST)
    From: new at udel.EDU (Darren New)
    Subject: Re: What's a PC? (What's the best environment)
    Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
    
    In article <TOM.88Oct25170554@chionia.amara.uucp> tom@chionia.amara.uucp (Tom Doehne) writes:
    >
    >In article <396@uwslh.UUCP> lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Fish-Guts) writes:
    >>In article <197@ai.etl.army.mil> mike@ai.etl.army.mil (Mike McDonnell) writes:
    >>
    >>>The best software development environment on the planet earth is a lisp
    >>>machine.  This is a "PC" in the generic sense.  It is the quality of the
    >>>supporting environment that makes this so.  Those of us who know and
    >...regrets deleted...
    >
    >>     Do other people in this group feel this way as well? 
    
    N.B., most if not all of the advantages of an integrated LISP 
    environment cited in the above articles are also present in
    Smalltalk.

That's the point:  it's not the language, per se, it's the integrated
environment.  Lispms just seem to be better-known.  And, gradually,
environments for lesser languages are catching up to those that already
exist for Lisp and Smalltalk (check out Saber-C).

So what got Lisp and Smalltalk there first?  My vote goes to the
object-oriented aspect of both languages, which is also filtering out to
lesser languages (I see C++ as a broader dialect of C).

			       It also supplies real structure
    for your data, instead of forcing everything to look like a list.

Most modern Lisps provide lists, arrays, structures, and "objects" (as
in Flavors or CLOS).

                              pf

Paul Fuqua
Texas Instruments Computer Science Center, Dallas, Texas
CSNet:  pf@csc.ti.com (ARPA too, sometimes)
UUCP:   {smu, texsun, cs.utexas.edu, im4u, rice}!ti-csl!pf