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000084_icon-group-sender _Tue Mar 3 16:41:37 1998.msg
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Received: from kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU (kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU [192.12.69.239])
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for <icon-group-addresses@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU>; Tue, 3 Mar 1998 16:41:36 -0700 (MST)
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From: gep2@computek.net
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 13:55:36 -0600
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Subject: Re: Translation into C
To: icon-group@optima.CS.Arizona.EDU
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> Does anyone know of a language implementation where the resulting code is
machine-generated C code that is maintainable by humans? If so, is the
compiler free and is the language general-purpose?
If you intend to maintain the program in C (thus making it essentially a
one-shot creation process) then why don't you just write it in C to begin with??
C is certainly general-purpose (though primitive) and there ARE compilers for it
that are cheap enough that for all practical purposes one can consider them
"free".
The answer to the question, of course, is that C is simply far too low-level a
language to do a lot of real-world applications in.
The reason WHY people write programs in Icon, SNOBOL, FoxPro, and other such
languages is precisely BECAUSE it's so much easier and more practical to do so.
It's rare (for most business applications) to write something once and then have
it not need changes later. And if you can't (or don't want to) write it in C to
begin with, you probably can't (or won't want to) maintain and enhance it in C
later, either.
So why not just write your programs using the most appropriate tools to begin
with?
*NONE* of my consulting clients have ever insisted that I write the programs I
do for them in a tool that is not the best-suited one for the job at hand. And
it's no mystery why not: doing so will cost them more money and take longer.
Gordon Peterson
http://www.computek.net/public/gep2/
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