Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!ncrcan!ziebmef!mdfreed
From: mdfreed@ziebmef.uucp (Mark Freedman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Into which computer language should I invest time and money?
Keywords: Turbo Basic Pascal C Assembler Quick Basic C Macro Assembler
Message-ID: <1989Jan30.113705.14346@ziebmef.uucp>
Date: 30 Jan 89 16:37:04 GMT
References: <4007@voder.UUCP>
Reply-To: mdfreed@ziebmef.UUCP (Mark Freedman)
Organization: Ziebmef Public Access Unix, Toronto, Ontario
Lines: 34


(which language is best ........)
    Holy Religious Wars, Batman .............
     I strongly suggest that you establish some selection criteria before
asking that sort of question. Each langauge / implementation has its 
strong and weak points. Most of the langauges mentioned are sufficiently 
powerful for most uses.
   A starting point for these criteria would be  1) what application(s) do
you intend to develop ??? A language suited to a large accounting package is
not necessarily equally suitable for small utilities (I've developed word-wrap
routines in COBOL and financial reports in C, but it certainly wasn't an
appropriate use of my time in either case).   2) what is your background ??
Some people prefer the ultimate control / ultimate tedium of assembly, others
prefer something more English-like (e.g. BASIC), yet others find C to be overly
terse, yet others find PASCAL to be overly restrictive, etc. ....   3) what
are your long-range goals, e.g. do you need to worry about portability to
other systems, or will an 8088 / MSDOS specific language (assembler) or 
implementation (e.g. one of the enhanced BASICs or PASCALs) suffice.
4)  What can you afford ??? 
   Given that C does NOT include certain business-related functions (e.g.
BCD arithmetic, data entry screen handling, keyed file handling), I would
say that C appears to be more portable to other environments at this time.
Due in part to its popularity, there are vast numbers of text books, third-
party libraries, and magazine articles dedicated to C. If you aren't put off
by its terseness, it isn't hard to work in (it IS relatively complex, due to
the power of the language). 
   As a purely personal recommendation, I'd suggest the Borland Turbo C
Professional package. This doesn't produce the "best" code, but I've found
the debugger to be very useful for learning about code generation and the]
8088 in general. The inclusion of TASM is an additional bonus, if you DO
decide to delve into assembler programming.
    This specific recommendation is based on the assumption that you don't
have a specific application or environment in mind which would be best served
by another language or implementation.