From: furballs@sequent.com (Paul Penrod)
Subject: Re: Macintosh bigots
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems Inc.
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 08:51:28 GMT

In article <clements-191192184605@bwayman.abq.bdm.com> clements@abq.bdm.com (Eric Clements) writes:
>In article <BxMG8q.LFD@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, rvenkate@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu
>(Ravikuma Venkateswar) wrote:
>

[ performance and money discussion deleted]

>>Especially since programming for a GUI takes much more time anyway. But
>>personally I think it's easier to program in Borland C++ than in Think C
>>with classes.
>
>Maybe you should try using a real development environment on the mac like
>MPW!!! better than any compiler on the PC.  PC compilers can compile
>Fortran,
>Asm, Pascal, Object Pascal, C, and C++ all in one environment! ( NOT! )
>
>Eric Clements

WHO CARES ???

IF you spend any time at all in all of these languages, or just a
few, you would realize that each of these has a flavor all it's own
that does not lend itself well to a GENERIC development
environment. Borland's IDE is a perfect example of a framework that
is easy enough to be productive in, regardless of the language, but
is tweaked to respond to the features and needs that each language
it supports to add efficiency. The functions that are identical to
each language set, such as the keystrokes for the editor and menu
layout, plus debugger, etc., remain the same, while optimizations,
directories, and any other dependancies change to reflect the
language.

Now as to languages:

Fortran is procedural. It does not build the same as Pascal or C.
So why should my environment force me to some generic middle ground
to handle it ?

Object Pascal and C++ are nothing more than reusable code for
disposable programmers. Classes, inheretance, and polymorphism are
the religous words of the day here. The optimizations are vastly
different from their parent languages. Why should I have to deal
with the BS of class structure induced features on my IDE when I
may be working in something like FORTRAN, or C, where I don't care,
and the language does not support it. 

Assembly under the Intel flavors lives and dies by PROCS and
MACROS. Try that little number on your objects.

C is a functionally abstract language that lends itself to a set of
features and optimizations that are not found elsewhere in this
group or are difficult to replicate. I want my IDE to reflect that.
Give me things in my environment that let me take advantage of the
language...

Pascal is somewhat more of the same. I wouldn't be caught dead with
it on my machine, but since you brought it up, it shares many of
the same features that C does, but with those damned safety nets
built in. It too caries optimizations that are unique to it.

The point of this argument is that a generic development
environment is not the best environment to develop in. So it's a
feature on the MAC. That does not count in it's favor. In some
instances, I would think it would count against it.

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