Author: Omid David Tabibi
Date: 02:21:06 08/01/03
Go up one level in this thread
On August 01, 2003 at 04:03:43, Graham Laight wrote: >On July 31, 2003 at 12:46:27, Omid David Tabibi wrote: > >>On July 31, 2003 at 04:17:47, Graham Laight wrote: >> >>>On July 30, 2003 at 00:00:54, Robert Hyatt wrote: >>> >>>>Depends on your ultimate goal. If you are going to be a programmer, it is >>>>not the best way to go. If you program in Java for 4 years, then leave and >>>>go to work where they use C, you have a _long_ learning curve. You've never >>>>seen pointers, for example. >>>> >>>>We took a _lot_ of heat about that from companies like BellSouth. >>> >>>It sounds to me as though Java is better than C, because it prevents errors with >>>type. >>> >>>For most businesses, the most pressing requirement is to make good code >>>cost-effectively - not to make super-fast code expensively. C is clearly going >>>to take longer to write and debug if it doesn't force type compatibility. >> >>When you learn C++ (which includes C in itself), you can very easily learn Java >>later. But it doesn't work the other way round: when you get comfortable with >>Java, you simply won't grasp the bizarre way the pointers work... >> >>In many programs Java would be a better choice than C/C++, but a programmer >>should always have the skill to write optimized code when needed. >> >>Recently there was some initiative to replace C++ with Python as the main >>programming language in our CS department. That initiative was fortunately >>blocked, now we just have to block Java from taking over :) If it was up to me, >>I would have replaced all those Prolog/Scheme/etc courses with more >>C/C++/Assembly stuff! Why the hell should the students learn Prolog these days?! > >If I were writing a rules-based expert system, and I was given a choice between >Prolog and assembly, I know which I'd choose* - even if it meant that the >resulting system would take a tenth of a second to make a decision rather than a >hundreth! > Think practically, how often are you required to write such a system and your only choices are Prolog and Assembly?! Comparing Prolog with Assembly in comparing apples with oranges. Whatever you can do with Prolog can also be done easily with C++ (or Java), but you cannot substitute Assembly with another language (when speed is really needed). >-g > >*Assuming it wasn't a time-critical application > >>>Imagine you were a medical professor. You teach your students to treat illness >>>with medicine. The local doctors complain, saying that the standard methodology >>>in your area is to treat illness with leaches. Would you change your curriculum? >>> >>>It seems to me that this is analogous to what you have done with your >>>programming curriculum. >>> >>>-g
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