Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Should C++ follow C's footsteps?
Message-ID: <1989Feb24.200407.15432@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <4800051@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <8902@alice.UUCP> <2438@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <36818@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <9048@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 89 20:04:07 GMT

In article <9048@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> budd@mist.UUCP (Tim Budd) writes:
>>... OOP is a different way of THINKING about
>>problems.  It takes a while to get used to.
>>
>Which is why I think Smalltalk or some other OO language is much better
>than C++.  It is not that the language is necessarily better, but that it
>is sufficiently foreign that users are forced to make a major effort in
>redirecting their thinking...

Of course, that extra effort guarantees that many fewer people will be
interested.  C++ permits but does not demand the change in thinking.
This means that one can program in C++ without ever bothering to change,
but it also means that one can make the switch gradually, without a
major up-front startup overhead.  This is not a trivial issue for
people whose primary attention has to be on getting code out the door;
for them the alternative to a gradual transition is no transition.

As usual, C++ opts for practicality over theoretical cleanliness.
-- 
The Earth is our mother;       |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
our nine months are up.        | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu