From: ak45ldp@Texaco.com (Larry D. Pyeatt)
Subject: Re: Is Modula-2 dead?
Organization: Texaco
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 15:34:04 GMT

In article <1992Sep8.101657.1@wombat.newcastle.edu.au>, eepjm@wombat.newcastle.edu.au (Peter Moylan) writes:
|> In article <36848@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu>, bmr@retiree.cis.ufl.edu (Benedict Rafanello) writes:
|> 
|> > Modula-2 isn't dead yet, and looks to be doing well in Europe.  Maybe this
|> > country will wake up and the "C" craze the will pass. :)
|>  
|> In article <1992Aug28.125029.26916@texhrc.uucp>, ak45ldp@Texaco.com (Larry D. Pyeatt) writes:
|> 
|> > Don't count on it, Ben.  For some reason, most Americans have a dislike for "good"
|> > programming languages.  If only Wirth had been an American...
|> 
|> It's tempting to compare this with the Fortran vs. Algol situation in the
|> early 1970s.  At that time Algol-60 was very popular in Europe, and
|> Fortran was very popular in the U.S.  Because of the strong dominance
|> of the U.S.A. in the computer field, and in particular because of the
|> influence of IBM, the Europeans didn't have much leverage, and Algol-60
|> became very much a minority language.
|> 
|> The new factors now are that the U.S. no longer has quite the influence
|> which it used to have, that compilers are no longer big-budget items,
|> and that individual computer users now have greater freedom to choose
|> their languages, rather than being confined to the one or two
|> languages decently supported on the central computer.
|> 
|> One of the many reasons for the popularity of C is that C is not Ada.
|> This matters a lot in the U.S., I suspect, because of the DoD pressure,
|> but it is less of a factor in the rest of the world.

I think that another reason for the popularity of C stems from the way that 
Americans traditionally write programs.  A large percentage of American
software is written by super-hackers.  i.e. one or two people write all
of the code, and the other team members just stand around and make the
coffee.  In this type of setting, the flexibility of C is more important
than the features provided by Euro-style languages.  This situation is
changing in the U.S. as the concept of group programming is finally catching
on here.  Hopefully, more Americans will come to realize that C and C++ are
not well suited to development of large systems by teams of programmers.

|> Now, none of these factors necessarily means that Modula-2 will
|> become a winner; but nor do they mean that it will become a loser.
|> American preferences are no longer a dominating factor.

I agree that American influence carries a great deal less weight than
in the past.  I also think that this is a good thing.  ( Hope I don't
get shot as a traitor! :^) 

|> I'd be curious to know what is popular in the countries with
|> expanding economies - parts of south-east Asia, for example.

So would I.

|> -- 
|> Peter Moylan                      eepjm@wombat.newcastle.edu.au

-- 
Larry D. Pyeatt                 The views expressed here are not
Internet : pyeatt@texaco.com    those of my employer or of anyone
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