Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!news.glorb.com!npeer02.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border4.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!news.iecc.com!nerds-end From: "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -animal to reply]" Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Have we reached the asymptotic plateau of innovation in programming la Date: 14 Mar 2012 02:02:24 GMT Organization: Compilers Central Lines: 28 Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <12-03-034@comp.compilers> References: <12-03-019@comp.compilers> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.iecc.com X-Trace: leila.iecc.com 1331699426 50511 64.57.183.58 (14 Mar 2012 04:30:26 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 04:30:26 +0000 (UTC) Keywords: history, design Posted-Date: 14 Mar 2012 00:30:26 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com X-Received-Bytes: 2506 Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:501 SLK Systems wrote: > By "significant developments" and "standardizing" I meant that for > programmers to have settled on 1 hardware/OS architecture and 1 > programming language is something new, and good. [[...]] I see no sign that programmers have settled on 1 programming language. Fortran, C, and C++ are certainly in widespread use, but then again, so are SQL, Lisp, Perl, Mathematica, Matlab, and TCL (to name only a few others that *don't* have syntax-and-semantics-similar-to-C). > Point is that Wintel > overwhelmed all other architectures, [[...]] I see no sign that Wintel has overwhelemed all other architectures. It's widely used for desktops, but outside of that space it's rare. E.g., what fraction of cellphones use it? What fraction of the TOP500 list of supercomputers? What fraction of the code in a modern fly-by-wire airliner is running on a Wintel architecture? As a final example, a few years ago I read that the world's #1 most common computer peripheral device was a fuel-injected carburetor; I rather doubt it runs on either the software or the hardware part of "Wintel". -- -- "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -animal to reply]" Dept of Astronomy, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA "C++ is to programming as sex is to reproduction. Better ways might technically exist but they're not nearly as much fun." -- Nikolai Irgens