Japanese flame

[ian@iexist.att.com (Ian Bruce)]

I'm a little confused as to why all the UNIX bashing. C is a great
language, look at all the portability you get with it. You can use AKCL
on almost any UNIX platform, largely because it goes thru a C stage. You
can build beautiful Object-Oriented systems where the processes are
state machines defined in SDL, LEX/YACC parsers to handle diverse input
languages running in a highly distributed environment, all because C is
a very nice low-level standard for UNIX boxes where C++, SDL, LEX, and
YACC (which are all very good languages for their own unique sorts of
applications) all converge and interface at the C level.

The UNIX philosophy and the C language are useful -- even to solve real
problems on Symbolics machines and distribute them to customers on
little UNIX boxes. The problem comes when we confuse the
philosophy/motivation with the artifacts. I almost never write anything
in C, but I live in a C/UNIX world. I love my XL1200, but I cannot
expect my customers to all go out and buy one, when they can get more
horsepower (for their applications) for a fraction of the cost. When
they ask if its written in C, we just respond -- "Yes, sort of", knowing
full well that its CL thru and thru.

Ian