mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse) (03/10/88)
In article <7314@brl-smoke.ARPA>, gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) writes: > In article <2336@umd5.umd.edu> chris@trantor.umd.edu (Chris Torek) writes: >> So why is this solution insufficient? > Because it's a pain in the lower part of the anatomy! Or, in other > words, just because it is theoretically sufficient does not mean that > it is convenient. This is one of the limitations of C that Fortran > programmers have difficulty with; they're used to being able to write > reasonable array manipulation routines. COBOL programmers will complain because printf doesn't have the full power of the PICTURE specification. LISP programmers will complain because C memory allocation must be managed by the programmer. FORTRAN programmers will complain because C lacks exponentiation and variable-dimension array arguments. SNOBOL programmers will miss the pattern-match operators they're used to using. APL programmers will want all sorts of things C doesn't have. Pascal programmers will complain because C doesn't have NEW() or strong typing. Ada programmers will want concurrency and generics and Ghod-only-knows what else. Can't we stop complaining because C doesn't have this feature or that feature that some other language does have? C isn't the ultimate language and doesn't try to be. It fits its niche very well; can't we leave it there? Look at what you want to do, then look over the list of languages available to you and select the one best suited to the task. Please don't complain because the ones that aren't suited to your task aren't suited to your task, and don't try to change them so that they are. Use another language instead, hopefully one better suited to your problem. The language you want isn't available on your machine, or you can't afford it, or your boss won't let you, or....? Well, the world is not perfect. Complain, yes, but make sure you identify the problem correctly: the appropriate language is not available. That the languages that are available aren't suited to your task is not the problem you should try to solve. If there is *no* language that seems appropriate, perhaps it's time to invent one. Drawing things from existing languages is appropriate then, but complaining about things you don't want from the existing languages is not. der Mouse uucp: mouse@mcgill-vision.uucp arpa: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu