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>
> Do you use the same tool for *all* 80 developers for *all*
> projects?
Yes.
> Before I became an independent software developer,
> I also was one of the bosses.
> Despite the fact that our major application was written in C
> I was able to develop two significant sub-applications in
> Modula-2. The end-user was not aware of any difference.
>
I've done the same thing when I was a programmer/analyst. In the 1980s I
worked on the EPOS team for a large retailer. We developed a system which
polled 2000 stores overnight to retrieve the sales data from the tills, and
send new product & price data out to them. This was in the days of 9600 baud
lines. We had 20 PCs each with 4 serial ports operating in parallel, working
all night every night to do this. Most of the software was written in
assembler for some unfathomable reason, but I was able to develop a couple
of applications in Modula-2. Other members of the team developed in their
preferred programming languages (usually C). However, it all become
unmaintainable as the different skills left the company, and the system was
scrapped and replaced with something off the shelf.
The analogy is an orchestra with no conductor, and musicians who each decide
what instrument they will play on any given day, without consulting the
others.
> If you have an appropriate minor side-project to do, try
> giving the task to two separate developers one using your
> normal tool and the other using BlackBox and compare the
> actual results.
>
It probably wouldn't matter. I'm sure BB would win on most measures, but
there simply isn't the critical mass of programmers available to hire.
Probably none of those I work with have any knowledge of CP's existence, and
there is certainly no desire to learn a language which will make them
unemployable.
> This sort of thing needs a lot of critical mass and
> > BB has missed
> > the boat, until Microsoft decide to adopt it. When do you
> think that
> > will be? The best that we can hope for is that enough
> Wirthians enter
> > Microsoft Research to spread the spirit of Oberon from within.
> >
>
> Clemens Szyperski, one of the Component Pascal pioneers is
> certainly there:
>
> http://research.microsoft.com/~cszypers/
>
> Also Tony Hoare, one of Niklaus Wirth's collaborators from
> the really early days. It is encouraging to se that the
> spirit of Oberon is showing through with some of the
> Microsoft .NET initiatives. Additionally, Active Oberon,
> Component Pascal and Zonnon are all available as .NET
> languages. The first two at least had initial funding from Microsoft.
I know. There is hope.
Bob
--- BlackBox
--- send subject HELP or UNSUBSCRIBE to blackbox{([at]})nowhere.xy
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Received on Fri May 19 2006 - 09:18:35 UTC