Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard 1602

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 15:30:23 GMT in alt.folklore.computers, CBFalconer

Most other HLLs are only available on a few platforms, unless their implementation is written in portable C, and that is mainly true only for interpreters; and even when other HLLs are available, they may only be available as expensive, proprietary, closed source products, with the usual fix policy: maybe in the next release!

C is a universally portable HLL (it is capable of higher level abstractions than COBOL or ForTran, and equivalent to other compiled HLLs, but comes without the training wheels they provide), so more code is being converted into or written in C to allow it to be used on other platforms.

There are effectively no compiled languages available on every platform other than C, with COBOL and ForTran also available in most hosted environments. C is a pragmatic answer for developers when they consider on which platforms they want to be able to run their code, they don't know what they'll be using next year, and they need a compiled language.

If producers or vendors of other niche compiled languages want to avoid their languages and markets totally disappearing, they should consider open sourcing their tool chain and libraries, and bump up their regular and one-time support costs to cover product enhancements. The risk is that customers might decide to go it alone and cancel support, or even become compebreastors in support, but if the producers or vendors have really been responsive to customers, that risk should be low. The benefit is there is then an intellectual commons to which existing customers may wish to contribute work that they have already done or wished they could do, reinvigorating the product and the language, and others may become interested in the product and the language, and wish to contribute.

-- Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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