Re: Our Most Precious Resource: Programmer Time (was Re: long term goals)
According to Philip Brown:
> WELL-WRITTEN C code is better than badly or even mediocre most
> anything else.
The code can be beautiful, yes. And for systems work, C is arguably
the best of breed. But for apps, C requires too much effort on
programmers' part to avoid memory trashing errors and other problems.
How many programmers do you know who don't even know what electric
fence, dmalloc, Purify, or Insure++ *are*, much less use them
regularly?
> > I can only hope that the OS community will finally wake up to the
> > hidden costs of C before too much more time is lost.
>
> Or maybe grow up and learn how to code better.
If my goal were to train programmers, then I'd agree; there's nothing
like programming to the bare metal to teach how things work. But I
think another valuable goal is to make the best software possible
given the limitations of the human beings who are trying to code up an
entire open infrastructure for the world. Namely, us.
> One of the not-so-hidden costs of C++ [...]
Look, I *said* that if you hate C++, you should forget I mentioned it.
Take me seriously this time, OK?
--
Chip Salzenberg - a.k.a. - <chip@valinux.com>
"Give me immortality, or give me death!" // Firesign Theatre
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