Language Challenge -- Results

[David Goodger]

on 2000-07-10 18:07, bv (bvoh at sdynamix.com) wrote:
> Language Challenge 2000 -- Results

On viewing the results table, we note that there was exactly one entry under
Assembler, and five under Fortran (including -- hold onto your hats -- the
winner!). None in any other language (including Python). A wry quip precedes
the table:

    We didn't think it was possible to silence the language warriors,
    however, the emptiness in the table suggests just that. What can
    be inferred from this deafening silence...? ... is the necessary
    know-how confined only to those who practice the language
    perceived by some as passé?

    This was an opportunity to show your prowess, not with rhetoric
    but with deeds -- code solving a real life problem -- yet you came
    up empty.

Let's look at the prizes:

    Compaq Visual Fortran V6.1 Professional Edition
        - Provided courtesy of Compaq
    SDX Modeling and Simulation Software V3.0

The SDX offering may be a wonderful product; I don't know. But the Visual
Fortran would be a waste of shelf space to most Pythonistas, I believe.

> We'd like to particularly encourage a visit by the younger generation
> which probably never even saw a code without trailing semicolons

I know of a language that does very well without a lot more line noise than
just trailing semicolons. Anyone care to hazard a guess? ;-}

> To view the contest summary please click on the "Language Challenge
> 2000" on http://sdynamix.com

But seriously (my comments above were in good fun, I assure you, no harm
intended), I read this newsgroup regularly and I never saw mention of the
Language Challenge 2000. Did I miss it? Perhaps the audience determined the
outcome?

Ah, fond memories of my college Fortran course... Thank Guido for Python!

-- 
David Goodger    dgoodger at bigfoot.com    Open-source projects:
 - The Go Tools Project: http://gotools.sourceforge.net
 (more to come!)