Author: Pat King
Date: 15:07:47 08/04/98
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On August 04, 1998 at 09:24:44, Tom Kerrigan wrote: >On August 04, 1998 at 02:59:30, Pat King wrote: > >>Actually, there's a lot of "serious" development done in VB in the business > >Don't confuse "some" with "a lot." Think about how many programs were written >before VB even existed. > >If you knew about C or C++, you would realize that they're not exactly different >languages. I do. They share a lot of syntax, but they're used a lot differently > >As for writing an object oriented chess program, good luck getting it running >nearly as fast as a program written in C or assembly. One can come close with the right design, and in my experience, it's a lot easier to tinker with without breaking. Of course my first couple of OO chess programs CRAWLED, mostly because I tried to make EVERYTHING an object. On the other hand, try getting a newbie to write decent C or assembly, never mind a world beating chess program as his first major project. He'll give up in frustration, and Comp Sci enrollments will tick down another notch. > >As for being able to write a chess program in any language, you're absolutely >right, of course. Chess programs have been written in the Excel macro language THAT I'd like to see! >and RPL, the language used by Hewlett Packard calculators. > >However, if you don't know C, you're out in the cold. Take all the public chess >program source code you can find. Now, what percentage of it is written in C? >What percentage in Pascal? In Basic? Actually, I was surprised at the amount of Pascal code out there, more than I thought there was. True, the majority's in C, but if I just wanted to cut and paste, then I could be happy with my Crafty source. I think there's more to be learned taking a "clean room" approach as much as possible, using whatever tools are at hand as effectively as possible. Frankly, I think it's a mistake to present any language as the solution to all problems. I'm not a VB fan, but if the kid's got some competence in it, then I say go for it! Pat
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