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000047_icon-group-sender _Tue Feb 25 16:34:57 1997.msg
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Received: by cheltenham.cs.arizona.edu; Tue, 25 Feb 1997 17:29:33 MST
Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19970225223457.006d13a4@post.its.mcw.edu>
X-Sender: cdt@post.its.mcw.edu
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Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 16:34:57 -0600
To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
From: Chris Tenaglia <cdt@post.its.mcw.edu>
Subject: Icon Programming Style
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
Status: RO
Content-Length: 3591
Not that it matters, but maybe it does, once upon
a time I wrote an Icon Programming Style Guide,
to make it like an officially certified tool. I'm
put it on a Web page for anyone interested in
downloading and looking it over. Basically, all
the Icon software I've written here conforms to
this guide. It's a Microsoft Word document and
you should be able to read or print it from Word
or Wordpad under Windows95. It's location is:
http://www.execpc.com/~cdt/style.html
Enjoy!
Chris.
Chris Tenaglia (system manager) | cdt@post.its.mcw.edu
Medical College of Wisconsin |
8701 W. Watertown Plank Rd. | Ce que vous voyez est
Milwaukee, WI 53226 (414)456-8765 | Ce que vous obtenez !
rom icon-group-sender Tue Feb 25 14:30:26 1997
Received: by cheltenham.cs.arizona.edu; Tue, 25 Feb 1997 17:29:24 MST
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 14:30:26 -0600
Message-Id: <199702252030.OAA01358@ns1.cmpu.net>
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From: gep2@computek.net
Subject: Re: What's the biggest Icon program you've written?
To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
["selling" Icon (or SNOBOL/SPITBOL)]
>I don't ask anymore either. I just do it, do it well, document it, and I'm
glad it holds up. I'm also open to training any coworker who wants in.
I think this is a reasonable approach. Alternatively, one can take the
opportunity to educate the client about the more powerful tools we use, which
allows us to solve their problems in a better and more robust way at a fraction
of the time and cost it would take using primitive languages like C or Pascal.
This seems to usually be welcome... of course, people HIRE consultants precisely
because they realize they themselves don't know the best way to do the things
they need and want to do.
>>>...The fact that Icon is supported by a rather small development team (for
>> instance, compiler work is stopped) is a problem.
>> I respectfully disagree. If anything characterizes Icon's implementations,
>IMO, it is that elusive attribute called "coherence". Its opposite is the MS
>treatment of a software megolith like Visual Basic.
>That hasn't affected me. After the first year, and having the book
I became pretty self sufficient. It hasn't needed oodles of patches
and if somthing works well enough, a lot less support is needed.
Agreed. And it's nice to use tools that are mature enough and bug-free enough
that they don't have to be subject to operational upheavals and expensive new
software versions every year or two. (I'd been happily using Macro Spitbol,
vintage 1986, along with a 1988-vintage SNOBOL4+ until I finally bought
SPITBOL-386 last year... mostly because I finally ended up with a program for
one of my clients where I really needed the extra memory capacity supported by
SPITBOL-386).
>...I've heard the common complaint that Icon
doesn't have enough system interfaces (like perl does). At least
in my applications, I'm not really interesting in the guts of the
OS, but rather files, which I think is Icon's forte. I kind of view
deep system access as a liability, that makes it that much easier
to mess things up (even by accident) and crash the system.
The bigger issue, I think, is that such low-level access also generally makes
the programs FAR less operating-system dependent. Not that that's a HUGE issue
of course, but it's nice when they can be kept more portable.
Gordon Peterson
http://www.computek.net/public/gep2/