Quick history lesson.. the unix operating system was created and C was the best language for everyone to use... they promoted it like crazy.
Later, unix men and C men.. such as Thompson, Rob Pike... worked on Plan 9.
Question: What do we see in Plan 9 and Inferno, the latest unix junk from bell labs?
Answer: They are moving away from old C thinking.
They're kind of brushing it under the table and pretending its 'their idea' to now have strong typing in Plan 9/inferno.
The new Cee compilers and Limbo compilers/systems have stronger typing. The limbo language now has modules... yes, modules. Hmmmmmmmmmm cough niklaus cough wirth cough modula cough.
Then we see Sawzall pop up, which borrows from Pascal and C. Sawzall is the programming language Google uses to index their search data. I.e. it is the main language google uses for their business.
Strong typing, modules.. what next? Might as well just admit you've been having idea sex with Niklaus Wirth without admitting it.
Do the boys Rob Pike, Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie have an idea crush on Wirth now?
It is typical.. for example modern pascal has gotten a lot more flexible and less restrictive.. while the Cee language and its successors are getting more restrictive these days.
Why do we fight? Instead of flaming and hating Wirth, , and instead of flaming Cee programmers (like I am right now), we should see that... ALL LANGUAGES of the 1970's are finally getting together and learning from each other.
Modern Pascal is Cee
Limbo is Modern Pascal
Vice Versa
Ruby Stole Modules From Modula
Java is UCSD Pascal
etc.
They're all aiming for the same thing.. and Niklaus Wirth had a lot of the main ideas and main philosophies.. as now we see all these modular safer strong languages popping up like Limbo, Cyclone, stronger C compilers, etc. etc.
Of course some people don't know ANYTHING about limbo, inferno, or plan 9.. they've never heard of it or researched the latest serious but infamous intellectual coding projects. Nor have people looked into Minix, where the Minux inventor is looking at using Cyclone, a safer Cee language.
Nor have people looked into OpenBSD where they avoid using flexible pchar/*char functions.. instead they limit the length using StrLCopy, etc.
Most people, instead of doing research, listen to people like Linus Torvalds who still hates Wirth and hates Dijkstra. Most people still think the old Cee rules of the earth are still dominant and prevelant today. Well, what are the experts doing today? Copying Wirth, of course. Not plagiarizing his languages.. just kind of politely stealing from them without anyone noticing.. except me.
(L505 doesn't have a life, while you do.. so this is why L505 is smarter than you and knows all these things that you don't. I spend time researching these trends.. and I'm ahead of everyone. I go where the code is going to be.. not where the code is currently at.)
[Update: this article was written in the early 2000's before GoLang was invented. Check out GoLang (speaking of going). Why did they name it "go"?]
I'm the judge. And all you Cee programmers are a bunch of hypocrites.. yelling at Niklaus while following his lead. You all remind me of little boys arguing in elementary school who become best business partners after university.
It's good that I happen to set things straight. Isn't it?
Get your hands on google. Look up 'strong typing', 'inferno', 'limbo', 'modules', 'static typing', 'safer', 'security', etc. If you look hard enough, you'll see that all the famous Cee programmers like Thompson, Pike, and even Nutjob, are moving toward Wirth versions of Cee. Without admitting it of course.
[update: this article was written in the early 2000's before GoLang existed. Checkout the GoLang Nuts mailing list... where did they get Nuts from, and where did they get the Go name from?]
Wirth has some things right.. but I still don't like his CAPS LOCK reserved words or his idea that a brand new oberon operating system can help us.. when we already are addicted to Unix/Windows. Wirth failed to get strings right, in all of his languages that ever existed, and he will continue to do so. Oberon will fade away into academic obscurity, if they don't fix ARRAY OF CHAR (LENGTH) to be an arbitrary length string abstract type. Wirth, get a clue. GoLang is a almost a FORK of the oberon project.... that will kill oberon. Unless oberon fixes strings. See Are-There-Ansistrings-in-Quiche.
When I speak of idea sex, I speak of philosophical metaphorical sex.. as in the Socrates style sex. see here if you don't understand. In fact, go there if you want to be confused.. don't go there if you want to understand. Sorry.
"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be." -- Wayne Gretzky
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