> I'm not sure I'd want any of the C family (and I include Java here) > taught, given _my_ druthers. I'd go with PL/1 (but last I saw it, it > really needed some serious revisions in line with modern thinking), > COBOL, Python.
OO PL/1? *lol* I suppose it would be possible, and actually might be fairly cool, come to think of it. I'm not sure I'd want to take the time to get it through the ANSI committees, though. > It seems to me that most times someone invents a new language (and Java > is a good example), its proponents think it has to look like C. Well, it has to look like something familiar to gain traction and adherents, and this generation is still heavily influenced by C. Also, C has had enough people beating on it to be fairly well optimized -- both in the language and the tooling surrounding the language (OK, ANSI C trigraphs were a really bad idea, but c'est la vie. Every language has at least one obligatory wart.) PL/1 was heavily influenced by Fortran and COBOL, and retained a lot of the syntax, concepts, and look and feel of both. Perl went through the same stages (although AFAICT, Larry Wall just doesn't give a darn about that sort of thing -- works for him, the rest of us just have to aspire to such brilliance). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
