[Novalug] I am thinking of a programming language - Can you name it?

Bruce O. Benson bbenson@gmail.com
Wed Oct 28 23:47:55 EDT 2009


On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 11:27 PM, Paul D. Bain <paulbain@pobox.com> wrote:

> Bruce O. Benson wrote:
>
>        I have no clue as to the identity of this language, but I shall
> guess nevertheless: Objective C? Camel? Eiffel? Probably _not_ Ada or Modula
> 2.
>
>        Honestly, no clue.
>
>        A language's memory usage or speed in execution are no longer
> terribly important. DRAM is cheap and CPU speeds are continuing to increase
> apace (Moore's law). Basically, programmers look for tools that tend to
> maximize their productivity, are not too difficult or complex (which
> complexity killed C++, BTW), are fun to use, and tend to lend themselves to
> code re-use. I suspect that these are the reasons as to why your "mystery
> language" is not commonly used -- am I correct?
>
>        Folks, programming languages compete with one another. If your
> favorite language ain't popular, then there is probably a reason for such
> unpopularity. It is not sufficient for a language to be superior in one or
> two respects, it must balance various considerations better than most other
> languages such that it becomes superior (to competing languages) in all
> _important_ respects. Otherwise, why use it?
>
>         If your favorite language ain't popular, then there is probably a
> reason for such unpopularity.
>
>        Bjarne Sroustrup, the inventor of C++, still believes that C++ is
> vastly superior to all other programming languages, including Java, Python,
> and Ruby. I am not kidding. He will probably go to his grave holding this
> opinion. Why? Because he cannot understand that which I have written above.
> At some point, you need to gain some objectivity with respect to your
> favorite programming language and ask yourself, "Uh, how come ain't nobody
> using this thang? What the hail is the reason?"
>

Well said.  For an opinion, I would say that you, sir, are very correct.
Except for the part about it not being in common use.  When the
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