According to Philip Brown:
> WELL-WRITTEN C code is better than badly or even mediocre most
> anything else.
On Mon, Dec 04, 2000 at 01:39:44AM -0800, Chip Salzenberg wrote:
> 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?
You ARE familiar with a defacto standard set of UNIX tools called
'mh'? More recently, 'nmh'? Small, fast, and command line, these
tools allow you to manipulate your email without having to enter a
CUI. They embrace the ideal of UNIX in that _every_ program is a
filter, able to use stdin and stdout effectively. They're written in
C. I would argue that there are MANY examples of well written
_applications_ written in C.
The language does not a bad program make. A bad programmer makes poor
use of a language. The argument that C requires too much effort on
the programmer's part to address and correctly handle memory
management is pure FUD. Let's not continue this thread if all we're
going to do is attack and defend programming languages. There are
other forums better suited to this religious argument.
If you want to tie in the topic of Debian developers and package and
software maintenance, address the matching of skill sets to the
applications maintained. I don't expect an Ada or Java programmer to
maintain a C or C++ program effectively, neither should you. There
are enough people involved in the Debian project to handle each case,
and if not, then it's time to recruit maintainers or perhaps cap the
number of packages maintained.
To bring this back in line with topic discussion, if you noticed, I
changed the subject line to better reflect what Debian is: a volunteer
effort. Yes, some people get paid to work on Debian, lucky ducks.
For the largest part, the Debian maintainers are the same people you
go to the Linux Users Group meetings with. I believe that this is an
asset, and that there is no need to distinguish between the developer
and the web maintainer or document contributor. EVERY position is
essential in providing the system that we have come to love, Debian.
<SPAN ID=RANT>
It's painful going to work knowing I'm going to have to program
for 8+ hours on a Red Hat machine that I do not have
administrative access to. My only solace is the knowledge that I
have my _baby_ at home, accessible at any time through an ssh
connection.
</SPAN>
Anyway, off to work.
--
Chad "^chewie, gunnarr" Walstrom <chewie@wookimus.net>
http://www.wookimus.net/
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