harlan@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (Pete Harlan) (08/31/90)
When someone I know doesn't like Scheme it is usually because they want to write a program they can give/sell to someone, and they want that person to be able to run the program like any other they have. While MacScheme has the ability to create standalone programs, it isn't desirable to have a program that you can't feasably port to other hardware. So C is great, and Lisp/Scheme stinks because it is impractical. This has an impact not only on software houses, but on educators who see their job as training people to work in those software houses. I actually know an Ada programmer who didn't like Scheme because there were too many possibilities -- he couldn't 'automatically' crank out a program within the restrictions provided by the language. Reminds me of a (true) story about a person living in a repressed communistic country who preferred it to the US because shopping was too hard here; too many choices. Pete Harlan harlan@copper.ucs.indiana.edu