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- Path: news.cs.columbia.edu!news
- From: bm@renoir.cs.columbia.edu (Blair MacIntyre)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula3,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.java
- Subject: Re: Java closer to Modula-3 than to C++
- Date: 26 Feb 1996 22:29:57 -0500
- Organization: Columbia University
- Sender: bm@renoir.cs.columbia.edu
- Message-ID: <xn17mx9fnt6.fsf@renoir.cs.columbia.edu>
- References: <31308FE2.167E@sophia.inria.fr>
- <1996Feb26.192508.2614@friend.kastle.com>
- <nelsoni.825385012@rintintin.Colorado.EDU>
- Reply-To: Blair MacIntyre <bm@cs.columbia.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: renoir.cs.columbia.edu
- In-reply-to: nelsoni@rintintin.Colorado.EDU's message of 27 Feb 96 01:36:52
- GMT
- X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.1
-
- >>>>> On 27 Feb 96 01:36:52 GMT, nelsoni@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (Ian
- >>>>> S. Nelson) said:
-
- Ian> rich@kastle.com (Richard Krehbiel) writes:
- >> Frederic Devernay <Frederic.Devernay@sophia.inria.fr> wrote:
-
- >>> I wish it could widen then use of Modula-3 (I still can't understand
- >>> where C++ gets its success from...).
-
- >> Oh, I think it's clear that C++ gets it's success from C. C #includes
- >> and libraries can (almost always) be called upon in C++ programs.
- >> Nothing like that can be said of Modula-3 or Java.
-
- Ian> There is also a lot of talk or hype still floating around that it
- Ian> is easy to pick up C++ from C. C is so difficult for so many
- Ian> people to learn and it is mandatory for a lot of jobs and at a
- Ian> lot of schools. I think a lot of people are afraid that might
- Ian> have to go through that again and C++ "being an 'extension' of C"
- Ian> sounds easier. It's all just spins and marketing combined with
- Ian> lack of information.
-
- There are other factors, the most important of them being, IMHO, the
- feature set of languages.
-
- C++ give you all kinds of "control" and "power" by allowing you to
- apparently do all kinds of variations and nit-picky things that allow
- you to "optimize" your programs.
-
- The most common reason I get for using C++, when I try to convince
- people that they should learn Modula-3 instead, is that C++ gives them
- more power and control.
-
- It is not a question of whether these things are true, and I am not
- asserting they are --- I don't intend to start a language comparison
- war here. It is a question of what a person new to the languages
- _perceives_ as true. People perceive that C++ gives them the control
- they had in C, with the "cool new OOP" features that are the panacea
- to their problems. Modula-3 doesn't have constructors/destructors, GC
- is evil because it has lots of overhead, you can do threads in C++, no
- multiple inheritance, C++ has exceptions now, etc etc. People don't
- seem to be as concerned about things like suitability to building
- large programs, distributed programs, working programs, robust
- programs, etc etc.
-
- Sigh.
- --
- Blair MacIntyre (bm@cs.columbia.edu), Graduate Student (Graphics and UI Lab)
-
- smail: Dept. of Computer Science, 450 Computer Science Building, 500 W 120 St.
- Columbia University, New York, NY 10027
-