An Ode to having to toss favorite tools
Note - please WikiLink anything you can here!
(Ramblings from another discussion board that I plan to clean up later)
CeeLanguage is hardly the pinnacle of
ProceduralLanguages or tools in general. As a
HardLanguage, it is designed for *hardware* performance and providing predictable
RunTime resource constraints, NOT
SoftwareEngineering convenience. It is the "new assembler", with some of the same headaches that
AssemblyLanguage had.
It's like comparing a Honda Civic to a Toyota RAV for off-road use. That the RAV beat the Civic for off-roading is not surprising.
If you wrote your
PayrollExample in
CeeLanguage without using the features of the
DataBase much, even I would prefer your
CeePlusPlus or
CeeSharp version over it.
The lesson is that if you want software-engineering-friendly tools, then you have to get software-engineering-friendly tools.
You seem to be focusing too much on YOUR past when you do mental comparing. It's interesting to note that I grew up on
ExBase (dBASE clones). Although the language was a bit clunky, it taught me the power of and productivity of
DynamicLanguages combined with nimble-and-ready
DataBase engines. I ran circles around the
CobolLanguage,
CeeLanguage, and
PascalLanguage guys.
ObjectOrientedProgramming was 2 steps backward, with its stiff, hardwired taxonomies and difficult-to-navigate-sift-and-study navigational
ObjectPointer pasta. Shifting most of the
BusinessLogic to tables just plain made it easier to manage. Code was more or less a low-IQ foot soldier that simply carried out the features requested by the tables. The tables were the dinner menus and order slips, and the program code was the back-room cooks. Nimble tables are addicting and now I had to suffer withdrawal symptoms as the fad pendulum [
TechnologicalPendulum] shifted back to ugly, tangled, static, code-centric paradigms. (I know,
SmalltalkLanguage and
PythonLanguage are more dynamic, but they are still essentially navigational in structure.
DrCodd was smart to "fix" navigational. He is the genius, not me. I merely stumbled into his genius.)
I hear that
LispLanguage fans suffer similar withdrawal symptoms when forced to use more restricting languages. Once you've been with Tabitha, Ol' Bertha just doesn't cut it.
See also
FavoriteToolsAndProductivity,
NavigationalVsRelational
CategoryOldSoftware