Re: [TUHS] Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Programming Language - Unearthed!

On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 9:26 PM, Larry McVoy <lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote: Not only would such a language be C-based but not C, it would beg the question: why? I saw a very interesting presentation a few months back by someone on the C++ standards committee. He was describing *how* the standards process works, but at one point described some of the upcoming features. If I recall, one proposal was to add list comprehensions, more or less because "Python has them." I couldn't resist asking in the Q&A, "Why?" The idea being that if I want Python, I know where to get Python (or Haskell, for that matter). Why does every language need to evolve to be every other language and in so doing grow into an uncontrolled and uncontrollable mess? I wasn't trying to be confrontational (I phrased my question somewhat more politely than what I just wrote here) but the answer was a tad defensive. As I recall, something along the lines of, "well, that's what the kids coming out of schools that teach Python expect these days, and we need them to stay relevant." I don't find that particularly compelling: languages are kind of like tools, and as such, often serve different purposes. If I want to solve a problem that is best suited to C, then I'll use C; if I want to solve some problem that's best suited to a different language (stronger type system, a richer set of built-in abstractions, first-class concurrency primitives, etc) then I'll reach for that instead. Why is that controversial? If I want to drive a screw, I reach for a screwdriver, not a hammer. Anyway, I for one am perfectly content for C to remain the high-level assembler that it mostly is. Call me a heretic, but I don't particularly want to write large programs in it anymore. That said, I also don't want it to grow too large, because then it makes it harder to use for low-level things. For example, I'm a little nonplussed about thread support in C11: what if I want to work in a world where a pthread-like thread isn't the concurrency model? Similarly with the semantics around atomics. Is compliance with the language standard going to force something on me that makes it hard to experiment with new ways of doing things? Anyway, I like the idea of multiple languages that occupy different niches. - Dan C.