From: Mark Probert <probertm@...>
Date: 2004-08-31T02:50:26+09:00
Subject: Re: Typos (Was: performance comparison)

David Ross <drossruby@yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> You can use C for anything you use ruby on.
>
Of course you are right.  Ruby is written  in C .. QED.


> 
> I am sure most
> people talk bad about C are not professional at all.
> 

Ever worked as a maintenance programmer?  Ever fixed bugs that other 
engineers had introduced into the code?  Ever found that some of those 
bugs   where simple stuff, like array bounds violations or null pointer 
assignments?  Then, have you tried going up to the original coder and 
telling them that they are not professional?

There are better ways of coding in C.  Try, for example

  http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/cweb.html

There are better ways of improving in any language 

  http://www.sei.cmu.edu/tsp/psp.html

Both of these approaches have been used by People Who Know A Lot (Knuth 
and Humphries) and both have been shown to work (I've used both and know 
they work).  

Why do more people not use them?  Why is our code still riddled with 
basic errors?  

(Hint:  it has nothing to do with the language, though the language will 
have an impact.  C is less, errrr, helpful, to the less experienced).

-- 
-mark.  (probertm @ acm dot org)