🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Aug20.134358.25702@informatik.uni-bremen.de>
        ms@lehre11.informatik.Uni-Bremen.DE (Martin Schroeder) writes:
> Today Modula-2 to me seems to be dying: Vendors are vanishing and
> most of the world (i.e. the Intel-World) is using C++. And in 18
> months we will have a wonderful standard, but nobody will care
> ("Modula-2? We are using C++").  So what is the presence and
> the future of Modula-2? And who ist really using Modula-2 (no
> universities please, just the real world)?

We here at the Bank of New York have been using Modula-2 on the VAX
for quite a few years.  We first purchased the compiler from Hamburg,
and later upgraded to more recent versions by Logitech, and then Terra
Datentechnique.

We have many telecommunication applications which are responsible for
processing funds transfers and many other kinds of financial
transactions.

Two of the more important requirements we have a for our software:

1) Correctness and integrity.  No matter how fast a telecommunication
link is, it better be correct when it's responsible for processing
millions of dollars.  Modula-2 proved quite worthy, by trapping stupid
errors which C will gladly accept.

2) Ease of maintenance.  In this business, things change often, and
different programmers might be maintaining different parts of an
application.  Again, Modula-2 - with type and version checking accross
modules - worked out beautifully.

3) Performance.  Our Modula-2 applications are just as efficient as
anything else we've seen written in an HLL.  On the VAX, M2 gives us
low level access, as well as a seamless interface to other languages,
libraries, etc.

I'd say M2 has been a great success here at the bank.  However, we are
looking forward to the future, and have begun looking into OOPL,
specifically Eiffel.

	- Steve -
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