🚀 go-pugleaf

Recently I posed the question "Why do so many people like C" to this
group.  (Of course I could have had a larger response by posting to
a C group, but I didn't want to start yet another flame war.)  I
think that the question is important because it helps in answering
the next question: How could we go about making Modula-2 (and/or one
of its successors) more popular?

I got three responses.  Not many, but still enough to make a summary
worthwhile.  Thanks to Larry Maturo, Syed Shibli, and Michel Dagenais.
An edited version of their comments follows, after which I have some
more comments.

-----------------------------------------------

- you can get a clean compile much quicker than you can in a strongly
  typed language and then you can design and implement your program
  incremently.
- much larger standard library than Modula-2 [and various other
  languages].
- strongly typed languages are more maintainable, but at the price
  of requiring more up-front design work.  [...] program design is
  something that requires a lot of experience to do well without
  coding as you go, so for inexperienced programmers that are forced
  into doing design C is easier.
- very terse syntax
- argv and argc
- availability of high-quality cheap compilers.
- very portable
- everyone else is using it
- lots of third-party libraries
- more powerful/flexible than Fortran
- more flexible/portable than Pascal (pointers to functions...)
- UNIX is built in C for C programmers

[End of summary]
-----------------------------------------------

Now, I don't agree with all of these points, but that's a separate 
issue.  What we have here is the beginnings of a list of the ways
in which Modula-2 could be made more attractive and/or better
promoted.  I'd suggest that standards and portability need to be
at the top of the list.

Side comment: I am now in the middle of writing up a document
called "Why I hate C", so that the next time I get caught up in the
endless disputes I can simply hand out a few sheets of paper rather
than repeating the same old arguments.

By the way, some of you will enjoy the following comment by one
of the respondents:
"Then, with the advent of C++, i gave it a try but at some point 
i could not stand it any more. Some OO facilities were added but at an
incredible cost in complexity and without much more safety or
structuring facilities.  I am now an happy MODULA 3 convert."

-- 
Peter Moylan                      eepjm@wombat.newcastle.edu.au