On May 26, 2008, at 8:41 AM, Mark Waser wrote:
C# may have advantages over Java, but
it doesn't mean that these advantages are particularly relevant for a
particular project.
Then make project-specific assertions. The fact that functional
programming is an integral part of C# is huge for AGI. (Your turn
to make a valid point :-)
Too bad C# is not an integral part of many developer environments or
most developer experience. It is like selecting Objective-C.
Functional programming is a really lame hobby horse because it is well-
supported in most of the plausible alternative environments (including
C++), if not as a direct part of the language then as a trivial add-
on. You are trading a minor nuisance for a showstopper.
In other words, this is a pretty crap justification for using .NET.
Where is the fabulous .NET support and development environment for
MacOS and Linux? Selecting C# really is like selecting Objective-C
except going the opposite direction (since Objective-C is broadly
supported in Unix-like environments, and even on Windows poorly), and
Objective-C is actually a pretty nice language with a solid and
growing developer pool. Hell, on the MacOS platform Objective-C even
comes with a really deep and slick set of frameworks and libraries
that allow you to implement many very advanced capabilities
effortlessly.
Not that I am suggesting actually using Objective-C; it shares the
exact same problems as C#, and I would use a similar criticism. There
are people on this mailing list using C# and Objective-C for their
projects, but they are closed shops and so the selection is more
easily rationalized. For open source projects, ideal environments play
second fiddle to broad language support. Painless portability is the
reason C is often selected over C++ for open source projects --
universality is that important.
Cheers,
J. Andrew Rogers
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agi
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