POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Interesting point/counterpoint on HLLs : Re: Interesting point/counterpoint on HLLs Server Time
6 Sep 2024 01:25:52 EDT (-0400)
  Re: Interesting point/counterpoint on HLLs  
From: Warp
Date: 28 Mar 2009 15:00:14
Message: <49ce73be@news.povray.org>
Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> http://www.netsplit.com/2009/03/26/the-fallacy-of-high-level-languages/

> http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2009/03/in-praise-of-high-level-languages.html

> I think they both make some good points and some bad points. :-)

  I failed to see the good points in the first article. What are they?

  Personally I hate C more than I hate Java. I wouldn't want to make any
project, minuscule or large, in C.

  C++ has its own quirks and problems too (being inherited from C and all),
but in most cases (especially in very small projects) it allows me to
concentrate on the *algorithm* I'm implementing, rather than all the
ancillary stuff I need in order to implement it (eg. data containers).

  As a concrete example, I recently wanted to write an anagram generator,
partially because I couldn't find any which I would have liked and which
would support defining a custom dictionary, and partially because I liked
the challenge. Handling the data and trying to make it fast required
dynamic data containers, sorting, binary searches and such. C++ allowed
me to start implementing my ideas *right away* because I didn't have to
waste any time at all on the data containers (and trivial algorithms like
binary search).

  Also he writes that he "trusts" C programmers more than higher-level
programmers.

  One good thing about open source projects is that you actually get to
see what kind of code they write. Well, take the sources of almost any
big C project out there and take a look at them. Have some brain bleach
prepared. One example project which you could try is mplayer and its
codecs. It's just plain HORRIBLE.

  I wouldn't trust these C hackers for anything. They don't know the first
thing about programming.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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