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- From: dogmat@aol.com (Dogmat)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.java,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk
- Subject: Re: Will Java kill C++?
- Date: 14 Apr 1996 14:40:52 -0400
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- Reply-To: dogmat@aol.com (Dogmat)
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-
- Jan Steinman wrote:
- > Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the biggest ST fans around, but I
- wouldn't
- > suggest it for serious number-crunching, unless you're doing infinite
- > precision math, in which case it does okay -- not fabulous, but not bad.
-
-
- How serious is serious Jan? If I'm trying to predict the weather, I agree
- with you. However, the pure OOP capabilities of Smalltalk make it the best
- number-crunching language I've ever come across -- except FORTRAN, of
- course, but I had to give that up in the interests of programming in the
- long (i.e., still using my code 10 years from now). In Smalltalk, the
- Number class and the potential for extending it are absolute mental
- hard-ons.
-
- Once again, for most of the applications developed, what really matters is
- not the speed of the executable, its the speed to develop, modify, and the
- ability to head off the wall of complexity. (Okay, speed matters when the
- run-time is pokey. It also matters when your spreadsheet is being sold to
- tens of millions of people.)
-
- Finally, I took my old Fortran matrix inversion code and converted it to
- Smalltalk. I then ran a test problem from my old Numerical Methods Book
- (Carnahan, Luther Wilkes). They have a worked out long-hand example where
- the values in the original matrix are Fractions and the inverted matrix
- are also Fractions. I ran this on Smalltalk and actually got back
- Fractions! Big deal? Yes, perhaps the most intensely profound programming
- result I've ever experienced. Sorry if this sounds wierd, but spend your
- life in Numerical Methods and Matrices and forever having to deal with
- roundoff and you would understand.
-