problems/risks due to programming language

[Karl Tombre]

In article <259 at eiffel.UUCP> bertrand at eiffel.UUCP (Bertrand Meyer) writes:
   From <Ec.3251 at cs.psu.edu> by melling at cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger):

   > Personally, it's the little things like this that make me
   > believe that everyone should ABANDON C and move on to C++(two others being
   > function prototyping and strong type checking).  Waddya think?  Wither C?

       How can the words ``strong type checking'' be applied to a language
   in which any variable may be cast to any type? In which you declare the
   type of a generic list element to be ``pointer to characters''?

       C++ only magnifies the problems of C, and it does not even have the
   excuses that can be invoked in the case of a 20-year old design such as C.
   [and so on]

Am I the only one having regularly the following problem?

I think Eiffel is a very good language (probably one of the best), I
am quite impressed by its design. I also appreciate Bertrand Meyer's
various technical and scientifical contributions in conferences and
newsgroups. But from time to time, this attitude of his comes up and
annoys me VERY MUCH : he seems to have difficulties accepting that
there are other solutions for object-oriented programming, that other
languages exist and are popular for various reasons. He especially
tends to become "rabid" when speaking of C++. This leaves such a bad
"taste in my mouth" that it tends to give me unjustly biased views of
Mr. Meyer's product, i.e. Eiffel.

That any "neutral" user gives his opinion about the merits or
deficiencies of C++, Eiffel, Smalltalk, Cobol, BASIC or whatever is
just fine. But shouldn't it be plain decency to restrain from
commenting in such strong and passionnate terms about one's
concurrents' products ? Especially for somebody wishing not to be
a marketing person but to be known as an authority in OO languages and
design ? I remember for instance reading some time ago, in the news,
comments from either Brad Cox or Bjarne Stroustrup about the other's
language; at no time did it have such a bad taste than the referenced
article. Isn't it on the border of arrogance to believe that "I know
the definite, final and only TRUTH about how an object-oriented
language should be designed" ???

--
Karl Tombre - INRIA Lorraine / CRIN
EMAIL : tombre at loria.crin.fr - POST : BP 239, 54506 VANDOEUVRE CEDEX, France