From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Mar 7 3:23: 3 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from brea.mc.mpls.visi.com (brea.mc.mpls.visi.com [208.42.156.100]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6EA3937B42B for ; Thu, 7 Mar 2002 03:22:30 -0800 (PST) Received: from sheol.localdomain (hawkeyd-fw.dsl.visi.com [208.42.101.193]) by brea.mc.mpls.visi.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id F0B422DDD0D; Thu, 7 Mar 2002 05:22:28 -0600 (CST) Received: (from hawkeyd@localhost) by sheol.localdomain (8.11.6/8.11.6) id g27BLSt65213; Thu, 7 Mar 2002 05:21:28 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from hawkeyd) Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 05:21:28 -0600 From: D J Hawkey Jr To: Mike Meyer Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: C vs C++ Message-ID: <20020307052128.A65180@sheol.localdomain> Reply-To: hawkeyd@visi.com References: <20020305164731.530B5BA03_i8k.babbleon.org@ns.sol.net> <200203061219.g26CJEJ61813@sheol.localdomain> <20020306191709.A55297@dragon.nuxi.com> <20020306215305.A64016@sheol.localdomain> <15494.64812.598093.56688@guru.mired.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i In-Reply-To: <15494.64812.598093.56688@guru.mired.org>; from mwm@mired.org on Wed, Mar 06, 2002 at 11:39:56PM -0600 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Mar 06, at 11:39 PM, Mike Meyer wrote: > > D J Hawkey Jr types: > > First, you're ascribing me to a group I don't belong. While I don't know > > Eiffel, or Lisp, or Modula, Snobol, etc., I don't demean them, nor do I > > bitch about such-and-such being written with them (well, not publicly, > > anyway). Many's the time I've wanted to modify a program written in a > > language I didn't/don't know, and learned enough of it to re-write it in > > a language I do know, just to do the changes I wanted. > > Ack! That makes believe the comments about people not wanting to learn > new languages. I would do it the other way around, and learn enough of > the language it's written in to make the changes I wanted. Ordinarily, I'd agree, but sometimes the changes were just to get things to work! With time constraints in place, it was easier and faster to learn the language enough to get a grasp of the code's functionality and re-write it than to LEARN THE LANGUAGE and find the brokenness. In other cases, the boss wanted it in another language. And in some cases, _I_ wanted it in another language. > In fact, I > think that's a good way to learn a language, providing you have a > stylisticly good example to start with. And who'd judge that? >