Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!selfless.tophat.at!news.glorb.com!newsfeeds.ihug.co.nz!lust.ihug.co.nz!ihug.co.nz!not-for-mail From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: =?UTF-8?B?QW5kcm9pZOKAlFdoeQ==?= Dalvik? Followup-To: comp.lang.java.programmer Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2011 15:40:03 +1200 Organization: Geek Central Lines: 35 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 118-92-86-36.dsl.dyn.ihug.co.nz Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8Bit X-Trace: lust.ihug.co.nz 1307245204 5997 118.92.86.36 (5 Jun 2011 03:40:04 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@ihug.co.nz NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2011 03:40:04 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: KNode/4.4.11 Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:4985 In message , Joshua Cranmer wrote: > On 06/03/2011 08:14 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote: > >> In message, Joshua Cranmer wrote: >> >>> That those are the top 10 languages in some order is probably >>> reasonable, if you include the use of Basic in Office macros and other >>> light programming ... >> >> But do you count all the versions of VBA as one language? For example, >> macros written for Microsoft Office 2003 do not so easily port to Office >> 2007 or later. > > To my knowledge, the *language* hasn't changed, it's the *library* > that's changed. Bit more than that : ... once the methods that have been moved around and that can be automatically converted are accounted for, the basic syntax of the language has not seen many "breaking" changes, just additions to support new features like structured exception handling and short-circuited expressions. Two important data type changes occurred ... ... The things that have changed significantly are the semantics—from those of an object-based programming language running on a deterministic, reference-counted engine based on COM to a fully object-oriented language backed by the .NET Framework ... And whether you consider the “library” part of the “language” or not, either way it’s a real source of compatibility headaches .