home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
ftp.cs.arizona.edu
/
ftp.cs.arizona.edu.tar
/
ftp.cs.arizona.edu
/
icon
/
newsgrp
/
group98a.txt
/
000091_icon-group-sender _Wed Mar 4 12:22:49 1998.msg
< prev
next >
Wrap
Internet Message Format
|
2000-09-20
|
2KB
Return-Path: <icon-group-sender>
Received: from kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU (kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU [192.12.69.239])
by baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id MAA23061
for <icon-group-addresses@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 12:22:48 -0700 (MST)
Received: by kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU (5.65v4.0/1.1.8.2/08Nov94-0446PM)
id AA06524; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 12:22:48 -0700
Message-Id: <34FDA767.2F8F@gte.net>
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 13:11:35 -0600
From: Mark Evans <evans@gte.net>
Reply-To: evans@gte.net
Organization: None
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Win95; I)
Mime-Version: 1.0
To: icon-group@optima.CS.Arizona.EDU
Subject: Re: Icon translation
References: <s4fd27c1.030@housmtp.oceaneering.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@optima.CS.Arizona.EDU
Status: RO
Content-Length: 1395
In reply to Charles Hethcoat <CHETHCOA@oss.oceaneering.com>,
If the vision for Icon stops at one-off personal utilities, then the
language will stall where it is -- making one-off personal utilities.
Most Windows programs are written in C++. They leverage a large class
library called MFC, and behind that, a C compiler that converts to
machine language.
I would much rather write MFC code than machine language. Programmers
are not "fooling Mother Nature" to write MFC. They are using high-level
tools that make the work of writing machine language efficient and fun.
It's true that they could eke out more performance writing the machine
language, but the tradeoff point between ease of expression and program
optimization is a personal decision. My own personal decision is that
Icon is too slow for production programs, so I am stuck with C until an
Icon->C converter comes along.
Icon's interpreter is written in C. A linker library that mimics Icon's
capabilities could also be written in C. In like manner, MFC provides
the functionality of Windows at a very high level of abstraction. I
want a development path from Icon's level of abstraction to machine
language, in the same spirit as MFC. It has been done before, guys.
When compilers were first proposed, a lot of scoffers said that they
were not technically feasible. Today they are fundamental to our work.
Mark