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000071_icon-group-sender _Thu Sep 18 12:51:01 1997.msg
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Received: from kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU (kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU [192.12.69.239])
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From: gep2@computek.net
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 12:10:57 -0500
Message-Id: <199709181710.MAA19533@axp.cmpu.net>
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Subject: Icon Talk
To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
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Status: RO
>At last, after about 10 years, I have managed to persuade my
colleagues (or some of them) to let me tell them about Icon in a
short departmental seminar. I have about 30 minutes, with slides.
What features of Icon do folks think I should present in order to
convince them to start using Icon?
>Obviously, I have my own ideas, but any others are welcome.
Damned difficult question, without knowing anything about what kind of stuff you
do, what other software and file/database systems you use, etc.!
That said, I think that the major advantages compared to a lot of other
programming languages involve:
a) speed and productivity for programmers
b) reduction of boundary condition errors in programs ("do for all elements
in the array" rather than "i = 1 to N")
c) availability of more advanced data structures (lists, tables, etc.)
d) reduction of pointer errors in programs (a real gotcha in C)
e) more robust and supple treatment of input commands and strings, due to
string scanning capabilities
f) easier to do more comprehensive edit checking on inputs (help reduce bad
data from finding its way into the system)
g) reduction of memory management errors (another traditional weak point of
C-type languages)
h) shorter source programs that are easier to follow in terms of program
logic (fewer lines of purely mechanical detail that aren't important to the
overall algorithm being coded)
i) very fast compilation times coupled with reduced opportunities for faults
reduce the compile/debug cycle time
I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that spring immediately to
mind.
Gordon Peterson
http://www.computek.net/public/gep2/
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