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000063_crash!UNCA.EDU!JVANRIPER_Fri, 24 Sep 93 05:42:15 PST.msg
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1994-05-26
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Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 08:14:43 -0400 (EDT)
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From: "Joseph E. Van_Riper III" <JVANRIPER@UNCA.EDU>
To: amigae@bkhouse.cts.com
Subject: How Does E Stack Against Other Languages
This message is in references to THORNTONJ@iccgcc.cs.hh.ab.com's question:
|how does Amiga E stack up to other langs. like C and
|Basic in terms of learning curve, ease of use, etc., etc.
I figured out how to program in E within about a couple of months. For me, the
biggest trick was getting used to the polymorphic nature of the variables.. I
kept passing the wrong variables around, guruing my computer <chuckle>.
E's strongest feature, in my opinion, is its handling of lists. I really LOVE
that. The polymorphic variable bit is very good, too. However, I still like
C++'s object oriented nature.. I LOATHE global variables, and find myself
having to do some funky weirdnesses to work around global variables in E, where
I have less trouble in C++. Further, I don't much care for E's handling of
objects.. that is, you cannot have objects within objects without having to
reference a separate variable.. eg:
OBJECT fulubreath
smile:INT;
grin:INT;
laugh:INT;
make_others_suffer:fulubreath
ENDOBJECT
DEF goo:fulubreath, gah:fulubreath
/* you cannot....*/
goo.make_others_suffer.laugh
/* you must instead */
gah:=goo.make_others_suffer
gah.laugh
I find this to be rather annoying.. but given E's advances, I'm willing to put
up with it. One other annoying thing is the lack of a modular approach to
programming in E.. that is, you may not create separate *.e files and merge
them together into one. While EPP sort of addresses this issue, I've
experienced some minor problems with EPP (although, to be honest, overall, I
like the way EPP handles things better than most compilors).
However, E is FAST. I LOVE that... I generally don't have to wait for
half-an-eternity for my files to compile. And it creates VERY compact code,
with built-in stacks (so your users needn't worry about THAT nonsense), and
several other nifties. It uses the Amiga's potential better than any other
language I've seen to date.. my compaints above are mere quibblings compared to
the advantages of using E for the Amiga.
So.. if you want portability, and Object Oriented features, C++ is still my
favorite. But if you want something that'll make really EXCELLENT code for
your Amiga, E is the language for it. I'm very much looking forward to E's
update, as I suspect the issues I've raised are already being worked on. E's
portability will probably always be a problem, though.. but I don't really
care. I don't much like MS-DOS or MacIntosh anyway.. I'd rather program for my
Amiga.
- Trey