NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/comp/edu/2224

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-20 | 1.9 KB

Xref: sparky comp.edu:2224 comp.lang.misc:4059 comp.software-eng:5059
Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.lang.misc,comp.software-eng
Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!mcgregor
From: [e-mail] (Scott Mcgregor)
Subject: Re: Programming language evaluation criteria
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 07:08:04 GMT
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One little remembered TECHNICAL reason for selecting or rejecting a
programming language is how easy it is to make a coding mistake in the
language which you don't discover (this is in part related to how
forgiving the compiler is).  You can even break that down to a measure
of the probability of making a mistake and the probability of catching
it.  The cost of detecting defects, and of fixing them are both
relatively high, so languages which limit or prevent many defects, or
which ensure their recognition can be a business advantage. The above
could be a justification for languages like Prograph which make
impossible a whole set of syntactic errors.

One little remembered BUSINESS reason for selecting or rejecting a
programming language is the availability of trained  programmers in
that language, the cost and time of training an existing programmer in
that new language and the opportunity cost of doing the training
instead of using  a language they already knew. I think this accounts
for the continued use of COBOL and FORTRAN in many settings.

--

Scott L. McGregor        [e-mail]
President            tel: [phone]
Prescient Software, Inc.    fax: [phone]
3494 Yuba Avenue
San Jose, CA 95117-2967

Prescient Software sells Merge Ahead, the tool for Merging Text or Code and
offers consulting  & training in project management and design for usability.