Fred injects a big dose of common sense, and a principle which goes back
almost a thousand years - Occam's Razor also known as K.I.S.S.
How often do we see people laboring over a high level "simple" solution
to a low level problem and in exasperation jump in and solve it in a
very short time with a very few lines of C or Assembler? It is our
experience that computer languages are just a tool, not a culture or
religion. Use the lightest one which cuts deepest and fastest for the
particular application. An adept programmer can handle any language and
learn a new one in no time flat.
I find Sqlite a particularly well thought through product. It is simple
in important ways, but not so simple that it cannot handle serious
applications. Like other successful systems it is "a coherent system
that pushes a few good ideas to the limit". A lesson in simplicity well
worth pondering.
JS
Fred Williams wrote:
Well I kind'a hope you are not a screaming Java bigot, but there are
serious reasons particular programming languages are chosen for
particular projects. And if the language choice is done properly,
logically, and realistically it will definitely not be the only language
the programmer happens to know. Harkens back to the very old joke, "He
can write Fortran in any language!"
If my world was perfect we would all still be writing ASSEMBLER... But,
I use the poor substitute "C" when performance, module size, and
portability are important. When I feel real lazy or the client starts
screaming about the overtime, I use a "third generation" language
(Object Oriented.) If I particularly dislike the client and want to get
rid of him as fast as I can, I use an interpreted language (no compile
time). And as I slip away he is on the phone ordering bigger and faster
hardware.
Fred
