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From: lvirden@cas.org
Subject: Re: GNU Extension Language Plans
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Message-ID: <1994Oct27.131833.11781@chemabs.uucp>
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References: <9410190420.AA02904@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu> <38ftvn$d4a@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <Cy6pBK.7t@jabba.ess.harris.com> <38lsar$5oj@info.epfl.ch>
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Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 13:18:33 GMT
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In article <38lsar$5oj@info.epfl.ch>,
Stefan Monnier <monnier@di.epfl.ch> wrote:
:In article <Cy6pBK.7t@jabba.ess.harris.com>,
:Mike McDonald <mac@Titan.ESS.Harris.com> wrote:
:>   Because you can't maintain the system then. If your users get to go off and
:> pick any tranlator they want, you'll have to learn every available language
:> inorder to debug your user's scripts. I don't believe that it is practical  for
:> you to expect to be able to debug a script written is some unknown language that
:> was machine translated into scheme, or forth, or whatever. (I've argued this same
:> point with the Dylan people to no good.)


What is the point of all the discussions?  Is the goal to give 'users' (who
ever that might be) the ability to add new commands to a program?  If so,
then we need to figure out which of the users we are trying to 
cater to.  The users most used to Windows are not going to want a selection
of dozens of langauges - they are going to want Visual Basic - or something
so close that the differences are non-important .  This means not Tcl,
not Perl, not Scheme, or anything else.

Or are the users the system administrators of large Unix installations?
Then in all likelihood the language should look like either ksh (or one
of the derivitive/supersets) or perl.

Or are the users college students?  By capturing the attention of folk
before they move out to industry, one has a better chance of moving one's
product on out to the marketplace - that's the approach Unix took as you
all know.  Then Modula-3, Scheme, Dylan or whatever is the language
du jour is preferred as a base.

:> 
:>   If you're not going to let them pick, then you just as well force them to use
:> the same language as you picked.
:

:No !  you can just announce them that if they don't use language X, then
:you don't provide any support: no problem for you and more flexibility
:for the experienced user !

There are two results to this approach.  One is that indeed you limit the
problems of dealing with all those languages out there.  That is because
you limit to a very small subset the number of customers.  If however
you are depending on said customers for income - you have just lost bucks.
-- 
:s Great net resources sought...
:s Larry W. Virden                 INET: lvirden@cas.org
:s <URL:http://www.mps.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/hpp?lvirden_sig.html>
The task of an educator should be to irrigate the desert not clear the forest.
