Wheel-reinvention with Python

[Torsten Bronger]

Hallöchen!

Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org> writes:

> Torsten Bronger <bronger at physik.rwth-aachen.de> writes:
>
>> [...]
>>
>> Because such projects attract the greatest number of developers,
>> many of them being amongst the most diligent developers, too.  I
>> expect this to have a positive influence of the language.
>
> You didn't answer the question about how you define agile
> project. Please do so if you expect a comment on this.

Projects with a high Sourceforge activity index.

> [...]
>
>> Yes, this is what I meant with "legacy code".  C and C++ are
>> actually special-purpose.  They are good for controlling a
>> computer but not for implementing an idea.  Their current
>> vitality on almost all software areas arise from the fact that
>> they had been extremely successful before Java, C#, and VB came
>> into play.  Invented today, they would be niche languages.
>
> This is patently absurd. C and C++ were born as general-purpose
> languages. Changing the environment around them isn't going to
> change that.

In 1955 people would have told you that Fortran is general-purpose.
It's not the case any more.

> [...]
>
>>>> Legacy code is not a sign of success IMO because it implies a
>>>> difficult future.
>>>
>>> So you're saying that Python, Perl, Linux, the various BSD
>>> et. al. will have a difficult future? [...]
>>
>> No.  All I said was that if a language's "success" relies almost
>> exclusively on the heavy presence of legacy code, its future is
>> difficult.  I see this for C and C++ excluding VC++.
>
> Well, you lumped all C/C++ code a legacy code.

No because ...

> [...]
>
> You can't have it both ways. Either C/C++ is all legacy code, or
> it's not.

... is wrong in my opinion.  Why should this be?

> [...]
>
> I think you need to come out from behind your Windows box for a
> while.

But you did read my headers?  ;-)

> There are *lots* of applications areas that don't need GUIs,
> and don't run on Windows.

This becomes a discussion about estimates we both don't know
exactly, and weight differently, so I'll leave it here.

Tschö,
Torsten.

-- 
Torsten Bronger, aquisgrana, europa vetus