:: Re: [DNG] Learning C (books)
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Author: Didier Kryn
Date:  
To: dng
Subject: Re: [DNG] Learning C (books)
Le 28/09/2024 à 23:40, Wm. Moss via Dng a écrit :
> In my opinion, most people who code should not be using a language
> that allows for pointer access, pointer arithmetic, and the other low
> level access and side effects that are built into the language. That
> said, there are to my knowledge no good Algol based languages in
> common use. Pascal and its progeny (Modular, Modular-2, Modular-3)
> never caught on and the original Iron Man became a horror of
> complexity as Ada. The current P-Code languages such as Python and
> Java are, for me, too slow and exhibit an annoying syntax. Propriety
> languages such as PL/I could have succeeded if their parent companies
> had released them into the public domain.


    I beg to disagree about the Algol family. Pascal seems now
outdated, but Ada is in use everywhere human life is at stake. It is not
a horror of complexity. It is verbose, particularly when compared to C,
but much easier to read. Except for fast prototyping, a line of program
is written once and read many times; therefore reading matters more. Ada
can do simple things simply and, obviously, complicated things in a more
complicated way. You don't need to know about "tagged records" (objects)
to write Ada programs. C++ forces you to OOP, Ada offers several
solutions in most cases; you don't need objects to write generic
subprograms. Everything is easier in Ada than in C++.

--     Didier