Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!cmcl2!lanl!jlg
From: jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Just Wondering
Message-ID: <12733@lanl.gov>
Date: 27 Apr 89 00:40:28 GMT
References: <12801@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 25

From article <12801@haddock.ima.isc.com>, by suitti@haddock.ima.isc.com (Stephen Uitti):
> In article <12564@lanl.gov> jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes:
>> ...case sensitivity discussion...
>>Fortunately, for both these cases, C has yet to become a really common
>>language in the big computer environment.  Even UNIX based supers mostly
>>use Fortran-like languages for production.
> 
> One may read this as "common usage is x, therefore x is better".

No, one may _not_ read what I said in this way.  On UNIX, C usage is
common - even to the virtual exclusion of all else.  By your interpretation
of what I said, you might think that I like C better on UNIX.  I don't.
I think C is less than optimal (or even good) in ALL environments.

> I'm not going to say "C is best", even if this is comp.lang.c.
> Still, i have seen vectorizing C compilers on Supers.  I've seen
> an application get over 150 MFLOPS with it.  

I just saw (within minutes ago) a Fortran benchmark getting 257 MFlops.
Now, I'm not going to say "Fortran is best".  In point of fact, I'm
completely dissatisfied with Fortran (no array syntax, no dynamic memory,
too much 'storage association').  But, I don't want to switch to
C either.  I don't think C is an improvement (except dynamic memory, C
shares all the problems that dissatisfy me about Fortran - and it has
additional problems of its own).